Photoshop tutorials

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Engraving in PhotoShop

Here you will be tought how to engrave on any material.

1) First you will need 2 things before we start. I material and a font called Cretino.

I used the metal texture from my metal tutorial as the material. You can use this or any texture that you have.


2) Select the Horizontal Type Mask Tool and select the Cretino font that you just downloaded. Make the font size very large I made mine 290.


3) Make a new layer. Now click on the new layer and type in any capital letter.
I chose the letter T. Heres what I have so far.


4) Now click on the texture layer (Background layer) and copy and paste.
EDIT > COPY. EDIT > PASTE

5) Click on the new layer that was just created (layer 2) and go to LAYER > STYLE > INNER SHADOW. Click OK. It should now look like this.


6) Now go to IMAGE > ADJUSTMENTS > BRIGHTNESS/CONTRAST.
I like to set it to -35 Brightness and -5 Contrast.

7) Now you have an engraved letter T. But that doesn't look to nice. So Im going to delete everything on layer 2 except the bottom line. Heres what Im left with.

Now this doesn't look like much, but if you repeat steps 3-6, choose differnt letters and
positions you can create an very nice effect. Heres something I made a while back using this technique.

How to make crystals in Photoshop

1) Open a new file, around 800 x 600 pixels. with a black background.

2) Use the elliptical marquee too make circle in the middle of medium size. Heres mine


3) Make sure the circle and the black background are on the same layer. Now go to
FILTER > STYLIZE > EXTRUDE
Use these setting

4) Now use EXTRUDE again but this time change the size to 20. Do this 2 times.

Heres my final result

PhotoShop - Image Blending

Well here you will be taught how to blend 2 images smoothly together.

1) Get 2 pictures that you want to blend together. These are the 2 i used:


2) Next put each picure on its own layer puting the picture u want blending on the top. Then using the rectangle marguee tool on the top layer, make a rectangle selection of what u want blended. Here is whati choose.


3) Now go to SELECTION>FEATHER. A box will pop up. this will determine come much the pictures will blend together. I choose 30 for mine.


4) Now make sure the rectangle that u made in the beginning is still there. And hit Clrl + C (copy). This will copy the top image. now click Clrl + V (paste) this will paste the top picture into the feathered rectangle.


EXTRA

You can also get similar results using the Eraser Tool and using a very large brush size. just make sure the pic you want to blend into the background is on top.

Saturday, April 08, 2006

Realistic Blood Tutorial In Photshop

Well here you will be taught how add realistic
blood to a pic.  


1)  Open the picture that you want to blood
to. This is the one i used







2) Next pick the lasso tool and make a outline
of where you want it to be. MAKE SURE it is
on a seperate layer then your picture. Now
fill in with a red color. Make it fairly dark,
but not too dark. Now set this new layer as
color burn.




3) Now go to ur tool bar and pick the color burn
tool (left pic) and the smudge tool (right pic).

Well we be using these alot.




4) Ok now with the smudge too, pick a brush size
that is about 1/4 the width of your blood spot.

Now start smudging. Try to make the blood like
as though its dripping. Keep doing this until
your satisfied with what you have. This is what i have so far.







5) Ok now use the burn tool to darken the blood
where the cut runs deeper. Heres what Idid.


6) Now to get a look as though the blood is on
her face we well texturize the blood. Go to

FILTER > TEXTURE > TEXTURIZE and this box
will pop up. Use the setting i have here.




7) And now your done. here is what my final result
looks like


Create your own lightsaber in Photoshop

1) Open a file 800x600 with a transparent
background.


2) Add any color except white and
black as your background, i used gray. Make a
new

layer and using the square marque tool select
a thin rectangle.




3) Pick two colors. I used blue
and white. You must use white and it must be in
the

forground.






 

4) Now select the gradiant tool. Make sure you
select the Reflective Gradiant.

Fill in the rectange that we made in step 2. It
should look like mine.


When filling in the rectangle start at the center
of the rectangel and go to

the right, then let go when u get to the edge
of the rectangle.











The 4th Icon is the Reflective Gradiant












5) Make a copy of this layer. On the original
layer go to FILTER > BLUR > GUASSIAN
BLUR and set it between 6-7. Then pick the
new layer and do the same thing except set
it to 3. With the new layer still picked,
set it to color dodge. You should have something
like this now.















6) Now on to the handle. Make a new layer and
using the square marque tool make a selection
that is about the size of a handle.






7) Again using the gradiant tool, except this
time we are going to use the 1st icon(pic
in step 4). The 2 colors we are going to use
are dark gray and white. Make something similar
to this, making one site dark and the other
very lite gray.


8) With go to FILTER > RENDER > LIGHTING
EFFECTS. Heres what i did.




9) Now go to LAYER > LAYER STYLE > BEVEL AND EMBOSS. Use these settings.

Add DROP SHADOW to the handle.


















10) Now make a copy of the 2nd layer that you
used to make the saber. The layer that you
set to color dodge in step 5. Move the layer
so thats its on top of the handle. your handle
should now look like the handle on the right.






NOTE : I rotated my lightsaber
to give it a more perspective look. If you
do the same some of the above and below
settings will have to be changed.












11) Make a new layer and make a thin white line across your saber handle. No
go to

LAYER > LAYER STYLE > INNER SHADOW

Use these settings.


I made a copy of this layer so my saber has 2 lines going a cross.













12) You now have a basic lightsaber. I did a
little more work, basically using the techniques

from the above steps to add some more stuff to
my handle. Here is my final saber.


Burn And Dodge Tools Tutorial In Photoshop

I find these tools very useful in alot of ways. Here is just one way you can use these to to add some detail into a design. I started off with a simple orb,
not really that shaded or anything.







1. Make your way over and select the burn tool and set the brush size to one or two pixels. Now start to draw fine wavey lines or I like to just call them veins.
Do it with both of the tools, burn and dodge. Now set your tools to a bigger brush size and start shading the sides and center of the orb.






2. It is looking kind of rough right now, but to soften it up you can add some gradient shines and reflections inside. Then just use your creative juices from
here and create some rad art with this technique. This is what I ended up with:







Friday, March 24, 2006

Photoshop Path Tool tutorial

Starting this tutorial you should know how to use Path Tool because this tutorial is for advanced users or maybe I'm wrong ;) There are a lot of tutorials about maxking and extracting things from images. Extracting using, wand tool, extract tool, magnetic lasso... In this tutorial you will learn how to mask and extract cell phone using Path tool but the way PRO do it. The difference between my method and others is that i don't add thousands of anchor points around the object on every corner and in the end i close my path. The point is to make closed path around my cell phone and then add only neceserry points:)
Here we go!






Step 1


As you can see i will mask cell phone. Of course you can extract anything using this method. But i have to warn you it will work only for objects with regular edges. OK. Select Rectangle tool [R]




Step 2


Change this tool options as you can see on my image. This option will make our path closed but not filled with any color.



Step 3


Now, click and draw rectangle around our object. See image.




Step 4


Select Direct selection tool [A] - white arrow. Click right mouse button on your path and Add Anchor Points where you really need it.




Step 5


I've added only necessery points and then i've adjusted my path by creating corners... Try working with zoom tool so you can see edges;)





Step 6


When you finish you should have path similar to mine. Perfect selection!


Now CTRL + click on work path and you have great selection.





Step 7


I use this method for tracing logotypes in Vector programs (Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW and FreeHand).



Try it it's easy!

Robert

Thursday, March 23, 2006

How to create icons



Step 1


Create a new document. Change to text tool and select wingdings and press * to get the icon on the left. You can use any icon you want, but for this tutorial we will use this envelope. Set the color to black and font size to 48pt.



Open the layer style options box for the layer and give it an outerglow with these settings...



Blend mode: Overlay

Opacity: 30%

Choke: 25%

size: 6








Step 2


Create a new layer under your type layer, and draw a box around your envelope using the selection tool.



Fill (edit>fill) your selection with #00B6FF.



Give this layer an inner glow with these settings..



Blend mode: Overlay

Opacity: 29%

Choke: 25

size: 6







Step 3


Don't deselect your box yet. Create a new layer above the type layer. Set your foreground color to white. Select the gradient tool and then select foreground to transperant. Drag the gradient tool from the top left of your box to the center, then set the blend mode of this layer to overlay.



While your selection is open still, select 'radial gradient' and drag from the bottom center to the middle to create half a gradient at the bottom of your icon.



You can now press ctrl+d to deselect.







Step 4



Create a new layer on top of everything and using the marquee tool select 2 lines on the top and left sides of your box. FIll it wiith white and set the blend mode of the layer to overlay.






Step 5


Create a new layer under the other layers. Draw a sqaure using the marquee tool slightly bigger than your icon. Fill it with white, and apply these layer style settings...



Outerglow

Opacity: normal

size: 9



Thats the end of the tutorial, you can always experiment with different shapes (windgings font has plenty of them!), and use different colors, to create nice icons for your website.

Eye tutorial



Step 1



Create a circular selection using the marquee tool. Select the gradient tool and make the foreground color #26477E and the backgruond color #7ABEF3. Using the radial gradient tool, click and drag from the center to the outer edge to create a gradient like this.






Step 2



Press ctrl+D to deselect. Make the foreground color black and create a new layer. Using the airbrush tool with a small brush size, draw lines similar to the ones shown here. Set the layer blend mode to 'soft light' and opacity 34%.
br /> Duplicate the layer and go to image> adjust> invert to make the lines white.






Step 3



Create a new layer and using the marquee tool, make a circle selection and fill it with black (edit> fll). Give the layer an outer glow using these settings:



Blend mode: overlay

Opacity: 42%

Spread: 18%

Size: 5px

This will give the pupil a nice drop shadow.



Step 4



Finally, create some new layers and draw some white circles over the eye, which are our reflections, then you're finished!



I hope you enjoyed this simple tutorial.

Alert Icon tutorial



Step 1


Create a new layer, and select the polygonal lasso tool. Draw a triangle as shown on the left. When you have the selection, smooth it by 6.



Step 2


Set the foreground color to #FFEB90 and the background to #FF7131. Select the gradient tool, then choose the radious mode. Click and drag from the top to bottom inside the selection, using the gradient tool. You should see something similar to mine on the left.




Step 3


Open up the layer styles box for layer 1. Add an inner shadow with these settings...
Blend Mode: Overlay
Color: Black
Angle: -90
Distance: 2
size: 1
Leave the rest of the settings as default.



Step 4



Add an outer glow with these settings...

blend mode: normal
opacity: 33%
size: 9px Spread: 0


Add an exclamation mark using the text tool. Set the color to black, the to size to 48, and set the font to Times New Roman. That will give us a nice thick character. Open the layer styles box for the text layer and add outer glow with these settings...

Blend mode: normal
opacity: 13%
spread: 25
size: 8





Step 5




Create a new layer. Select the rectangular marquee tool and set it to subtract. Cut the previous selection in half, leaving the top half. Contract the selection by 2 then smooth it by 4.

Fill it with #ffffff (white) and set the opacity of the layer to 54%.




Step 6




Deselect the selection by pressing ctrl+d. Create a new layer. Hold down your ctrl button and click the first layer we made, in the layer palette. This should create a selection around our triangle. Make sure your still on the top layer, which we just created. Set the foreground color to black and stroke the selection, this will create our border.


3D Tentacles



Step 1


Create document 250x250 pixels. Fill it with #B9CCD9 color. Create a new layer name it "tentacle". Select rectangular marquee tool [M]. Make a shape similar to mine 18 width and 240 height pixels. Fill the selection with BLACK. Don't deselect it until I tell you.








Step 2


Create a new layer above the tentacle layer. You don't have to rename it. I hope you have the selection still active. Fill it with #FCFCFC color. Now You should have two layers : Layer 1 and tentacle layer. Similar to the image on the left.









Step 3


Now apply Gaussian Filter to Layer 1. Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur with radius 4.
Merge both layers CTRL+E. Now you have one layer called tentacle. You can deselect your selection selection now.








Step 4



Now all we have to do is distort it. Edit>Transform>Distort. Select right-bottom corner and using SHIFT+ALT move it to a little to the center. Do it the same with right-top corner but this time move it to the right. Watch my image.







Step 5


Add Shear filter. Filter>Distort>Shear. You can make your own or use my settings.










Step 6


Here is the most important part of this tutorial.



Add Plastic Wrap. Filter>Artistic>Plastic Wrap.


Settings:

Highlight Strenght : 9

Detail : 9

Smoothness : 2




TIP: The trick is to add light which goes from top to bottom. It makes tentacle looks like 3D tentacle. If you want to make smaller or bigger tentacle just play with these settings.















Step 7


Add some shadows. Use layer style - drop shadow with these settings:



Blend Mode: Normal

Color: Black

Opacity: 30 %

Angle: 90


Distance: 2

Spread: 0


Size: 5








Step 8


This is the best part. We are going to cover this tentacle with BLOOD. Download some bloody brushes or use your own. I suggest you visit deviantart.com. There is a lot of great bloody brushes. It doesn't have to be blood. You can draw some spots using standard brushes.
Create a new layer and name it "blood". Change the foregound color to #A2171A and splash some blood on the tentacle. Don't cover the whole tentacle.




(edit: Brushes available at www.angryblue.com)









Step 9


Set the blending mode for the "blood layer" to Color Burn. While still on the blood layer hold CTRL and select "tentacle layer". Inverse a selection CTRL+SHIFT+I and hit DELETE. Now add some adjustments : Image> Adjustments> Brightness&Contrast and enter Brightness -25.



Sharpen "tentacle layer". Filter>Sharpen>Sharpen. WOW!











Step 10


Final step is to add more blood spots to the background. Using this technique you can add anything to a tentacle like slime.
All you have to do now is duplicate it.



REMEMBER : The key is to properly set Plastic Wrap Filter.
Add more tentacles and have fun. Just be creative!



Congratulations, Your done!

Energy Blast tutorial

1. Start out with a new 250x250 image. Choose a white background. Then
press D on your keyboard to reset the colors.



2. Go to filter > render > clouds




3. Now go to Filter > Pixelate > Mezzotint. Select long lines from
the drop down menu.




4. Next go to Filter > Blur > Radial Blur. Choose 100, zoom, and
best.





5. Finally, to add some color, go to Image > Adjust > Hue/Saturation.
You can do this quickly by pressing Ctrl+U. You can adjust the colors there.
Make sure you check "colorize".