Table of contents for No. 135 in Photoshop Creative

Challenge entries The best entries and overall challenge winner 1 Hendrix Hawkins Still Happy At Any Time “I tried to create something as real as possible, but something that can put a smile on your face. I placed the shark beneath the waves and the two gamers in a boat each with juice drinks.” 2 Jeferson Silva Watching The Game “In this entry, the shark and a few fish are all watching the game. Adjustment layers were used to recolour the original pictures.” 3 Anita Elder Extreme Aquarium “Imagine you could climb into a glass room, inside an aquarium to become part of the exhibit.” 4 Sly Morozov Change Your World “I used all four pictures for this image. The idea is that when you immerse yourself in a passion,…

01 Import the render After working in 3ds Max to create the car model and render, we were ready to start work in Photoshop. The first step was to set up the file and separate each different element of the car using the render material mattes. 02 Add texture We then started to work up the rubber texture and add different photographic textures in order to enhance the age and wear of the car. We wanted to maintain a clean look, but the D-Type is still vintage. 03 Relight and enhance detail In a plain-body image such as this one, it’s all about the detail in order to create realism. Using the Normal pass we were able to tweak certain elements of the car and relight them in order to…

ADD SOME SHADOWS AND HIGHLIGHTS Create a new layer and fill with 50% grey. Grab the Dodge and Burn tool and paint over the layer to add shadows or highlights. TRANSLUCENT IMAGES Use layer masks to create translucent images. You can reduce the layer’s opacity, drag a black/white gradient over the mask, or use a low-pressure brush to create the effect. ADJUSTMENT LAYERS Use adjustment layers and layer masks wherever you think it is necessary. The major advantage using this technique is that you can re-edit it anytime. CLIPPING MASKS Using the clipping mask allows for masking out effects or adjustments. The clipping mask interacts exclusively with the base layer to create interesting effects.…

On the FileSilo Download your free resources at www.filesilo.co.uk/photoshopcreative Essentials Works with What you’ll learn How to use the Warp tool, clipping masks, light and shadow Time taken 6hours Expert Rodrigo Marinelli “In all my images I love to work with bright colours. Here, I used Color Balance, Levels, Brightness and Contrast adjustment tools. “I’m an art director and have 10 years of experience in advertising agencies. I learned and am still learning to use Photoshop through following tutorials.” Photoshop 3D is a great way to add a new dimension to your composition. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to create and work in the 3D space and then bring in 2D elements to make an incredible surreal scene. To create a 3D object in Photoshop we need to…

On the FileSilo Download your free resources at www.filesilo.co.uk/photoshopcreative Essentials Works with What you’ll learn How to create 3D effects with layer styles, gradients and layer masks Time taken 2hours Expert Sarah Cousens “I found that using photo filters and gradients with different blending modes really helped to achieve the bright and cheerful feel of this artwork. I am a freelance illustrator, designer and writer, and have been using Photoshop extensively since forming my own illustration and design company, Cool Surface, eight years ago.” Word-based art comes in many forms; from personalised text posters, or powerful inspirational quotes to impressive ASCII art. One way of transforming simple text into a work of art is to bring the word’s meaning to life. In this tutorial we’ll be taking the word ‘grow’…

On the FileSilo Download your free resources at www.filesilo.co.uk/photoshopcreative Essentials Works with What you’ll learn How to use layers, masks and Camera Raw to transform animal pictures Time taken 3hours Expert Mark White “I had a lot of fun sharpening, dodging and burning to bring out this tiger’s best details. It looks great in a vibrant composition. The subject-enhancing techniques here apply to almost any animal. As senior staff writer on Photoshop Creative, I’ve learned all kinds of quick tips to help with even the most impressive-looking pictures.” When you visit the zoo, it doesn’t matter how good the photos you take are: animals always look more majestic in the wild. Photoshop at its very heart has always been software for improving your photos, but this is one of the…

The first step to conceptualising a new world is to break down the elements of the story that you or the client want to tell. This story is about a pair of adventurers in the Forties who begin investigating mysterious artefacts, and are ultimately drawn to the dark jungles in Mexico. Here they encounter a terrifying, tentacled creature and are forced to fight to survive. The trick to combining concept art and storytelling is to convey as much of this story through the characters and the environment design. For this tutorial you will be working towards a single polished image so it is important to establish a pivotal moment, which brings all of these elements together and spend time making sure each part is fleshed out enough that it feels…

On the FileSilo Download your free resources at www.filesilo.co.uk/photoshopcreative First we had vinyl, but then along came cassettes, then CDs and most recently MP3s. Though technology is as ever-changing as our music tastes, there’s something classic about the old formats, and it’s still a great gift to create somebody a CD of all their favourite music, or even just make one for your car. You might like to get creative with your playlists, but why stop there? Creating the perfect cover sleeve and disc artwork can be just as fun, especially if there’s a theme to the music on the album. You might want to spoof famous album covers, include pictures of your friends, or simply add a great image for each of your compilation CDs so that you can…

GLUE TOGETHER Fold along where the edges meet, lightly glue over the flaps, in this case the grey areas, and stick behind the other sides. You might have a CD case ready to print onto, but it’s perfectly possible to print your CD case design onto paper, fold the paper and stick it together and form a paper case for your CD to slip into. This is a technique that you can use for a CD case that doesn’t have a spine; if you created one earlier, simply remove it from the design. 01 Rotate the cover Merge your layers in the CD case document. Select the right-hand side and rotate the image 90 degrees clockwise. Select the left-hand side and rotate 90 degrees in the opposite direction. 02 Print…

Creating a flawless selection is crucial to make a good photo composition. The Quick Selection tool is the best choice when you are trying to select textures or tones. Grab the Quick Selection tool (W) and simply start painting the areas you want to select. The Quick Selection tool will analyse the area and detect the edges for you. To make it more accurate, press Z and zoom in, vary the brush size and paint close to the edges. Continue adding to the selection until you have selected everything. If you mistakenly select the background you can just press Cmd/Ctrl+Z or subtract from the selection by holding down the Option/Alt key and painting over the area you want to remove from.…

COLOUR OPTIONS Toggle between either vivid or black-and-white colour options for your drawing, and set a background of a particular colour. The specs Company AKVIS Additional specs Windows XP +Mac OS X 10.6 +Photoshop CS +Photoshop Elementscompatible AKVIS Draw is a plug-in that acts rather similarly to a Photoshop filter from the Filter Gallery, only there are even more sliders to create something wildly different every time. Though its plug-ins are designed to feel like filters, AKVIS’s software is far more powerful. Draw looks and feels familiar as soon as you load it on your picture. The preview window is large enough to see the effects of your filter close up, and the sliders are located to the right, just as in Photoshop. There’s a drop-down menu for adding preset…

Proving that one small idea can lead to big things, INK studio was initially formed to produce a single-motion graphics film by David Macey and Kamen Sirashki when they were made redundant in the recession of 2009. Working with just the last of their savings and a computer built by Sirashki himself, the duo created a successful animation. Fast forward to the present day and there are 10 permanent studio team members as well as a wide range of freelancers, producing live-action film, animation digital imagery, photography, print and interactive media. As well as working for a whole host of well-known clients, INK pursues notable, self-directed projects in order to keep it at the forefront of the industry. Most recently, it created a plain-body D-Type Jaguar to coincide with the…

Traditional styles in digital media SATURATION Pure oil pastels, before blending, can contain highly saturated colours. This complements the cartoon style of your illustration too, so try not to make the colours too dark. TEXTURE Texture is imperative to achieving a natural look; if your texture brush hasn’t provided enough texture, be sure to apply more by copying in texture images. DON’T GO OVERBOARD Making your painting strokes streaky is a great way to mimic oil pastels, but don’t overdo it! Overlaying too many strokes will make your work look fake. MESSY IS NEAT This technique calls for a messy approach; Photoshop offers all sorts of ways of keeping your work neat, but avoid perfection. Let go and have some fun!…

3D REFERENCE The relatively complex shapes of the jeep are easy to sketch thanks to the 3D reference model, but this could also be achieved with photo references to save time. THE RUINS Once the overall forms of the buildings have been blocked in, you can start to introduce design elements based on your reference photos. There are several ways to go about creating the concept illustration, and one of the most useful in production is to roughly model the environment in a 3D program then paint over it in Photoshop. This technique will enable you to change the concept on the fly if you need to, and one thing that all concept artists have to be aware of is that projects can change at the drop of a hat.…

On the FileSilo Download your free resources at www.filesilo.co.uk/photoshopcreative Essentials Time taken 3hours Expert Alex Pushilin “I’m a freelance game artist com from @t Chelyabinsk, Russia, and have used Blender and Photoshop for about four years since I changed my career from advertising to game art.” For more of Alex’s eye-catching work, head to www.be.net/plannit. Learn how to create a three-dimensional landscape scene in Blender, then take the 3D render into Photoshop to perfect it. If you’ve not used Blender before, it’s free to download and we’ll guide you on how to create the low-poly render. You can get the latest version of Blender on the official developer site, blender.org. But if you’d rather download our Photoshop-ready render from the FileSilo, you can start the tutorial at step 12. The…

WHITE BORDERS The white borders on a CD case aren’t compulsory, but they do give the album cover a classic feel. Album artwork can be an art form in itself. There are all kinds of iconic album sleeves and it can be fun to try and create your own, but every great album cover starts with a bright, striking base image. Elements offers great tools, such as shapes and gradients to help you build upon your base image; feel free to try out all kinds of styles and shapes until you’re happy with the final result. 01 Set dimensions and guide Start off by creating a new document. CD cases are 13.5cm square, so make the height 13.5cm, and the length twice this – 27cm – plus however much you…

On the FileSilo Download your free resources at www.filesilo.co.uk/photoshopcreative UNDER EYES Always try to soften the skin under the eyes to avoid any bumpiness or rough edges, and make your subject look younger. EYEBROWS Copy one of the eyebrows, flip horizontal and paste over the other one if the two look noticeably different on your subject. It’s no secret that we tend to only upload the most flattering photos of ourselves to social media. It’s extremely rare, if not impossible to take a perfect picture of somebody first time around, so naturally, most photos could do with a little bit of subtle editing. When people think of photo retouching, they tend to think of the extremes; Photoshop itself can sometimes be used as a negative word to describe overly retouched…

On the FileSilo Download your free resources at www.filesilo.co.uk/photoshopcreative This tutorial concentrates on colour, painting, layers and using composition to produce an illustration that you can then use within your different projects at home or work. Draw your image on to paper using a pencil and scan it in to the computer as a PDF. This ensures a clear image, which uses the high-quality resolution of 300dpi. Alternatively, you can download and use our sketch from the FileSilo. It is easy to add a transparent layer and trace over the image with the Brush tool. Go to Layer>New Layer, set the Opacity to 100%, then draw on top of your scan using the Brush tool (B). You can use a quicker more efficient method by multiplying the layer and painting…

BUTTONS Use the buttons on the side of the stylus for quick access to the Undo or the Eraser tool, and change these within the Bamboo app. INTERCHANGEABLE NIB The stylus comes with a spare nib, of the same size and width, which can be swapped with the other one. The specs Company Wacom Additional specs 2048 levels of pen pressure Bluetooth 4.0 2.9mm nib There are those who dislike the idea of using a stylus with tablets and there are those who prefer to use a pen when using an iPad, for example. There’s no doubting that it can improve your sketching, and Wacom has developed a few of the leading tablet styluses of the last few years. As the tablet evolves and touch technology becomes more sensitive, the…

Sketching and pasting First create a rough sketch of what you want to create, perhaps even on your background image so that you have an idea of scale and size. Visually place the elements. Adding and blending Choose similar images to comp into your picture so they’ll look more natural. Here, the violins are part of a set of stock images, which work well with the snow. Lighting and shadow The most important part for realism: insert a light source in the sky and use some brushes set to Colour Dodge on the subject to create a backlight. Final adjustments Add Gaussian Blur progressively on the violins, giving the sensation of distance. Retouch and fix anything and add final details, like shadows, sunrays and falling snow.…

Applying gradients ALTER COLOUR You can alter the colours in the Gradient Editor at any time, by simply double-clicking a Color Stop or the Color Menu box (bottom left). GRADIENT MAP STOP Simply drag and place the Opacity Stops in your Gradient Editor Slider to affect the fade and placement of your applied gradient. Adding and targeting Levels works in very much the same way in Elements as we have shown in Photoshop. However, applying gradients works differently. Gradient Overlay isn’t an option in the Elements fx options. Instead, choose the layer you want to target a gradient to and select Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Gradient Map. Activate the ‘Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask’ option to clip the gradient to your layer, isolating the effects. Set blend mode to Multiply,…

Showcase your work MAKE A WALLPAPER Use the internet as a tool to show your work to the world. Turn your work into a wallpaper, (1920 x 1080 px). After that, make available for free download. CREATE AN AD Making a two-page ad is always a dream for an art director, so take this opportunity and add a new job on your portfolio. Usually the format is 40.4 x 26.6 cm. In advertising, to be successful, you always need to have something new to show to the creative director, so one idea is to create a two-page ad to put in your portfolio. Today the internet is a major tool for promoting your work in all parts of the world, so another idea is to transform the image into a…

Print your movie poster KEEP IT LEGIBLE Text should always be above 6pt at a minimum – any smaller and it’s very hard to read when printed, even if it seems okay on screen! What better way to display your movie poster than to print it off and put it on the wall as a tangible poster! Most real movie posters are a size called a One Sheet (27” x 41”), but as this is very large it’s tricky to print. So set up your canvas as A3 (297 x 420mm) with an added 3mm bleed, making the total canvas size 300 x 423mm. This size will be easy to print online or in local shops. You could even personalise each poster and give them as gifts. Make your friend…

Create the stalk WARP THE LINE Add the straight line diagonally from the tail of the ‘g’ to the bottom centre of the canvas, then it’s time for some extreme warping. To create the stalk, use the Line tool to create a straight line, press Ctrl/Cmd+T then Ctrl/ right-click and choose Warp, and manipulate the shape to create curves. Ctrl/right-click its name in the Layers palette and choose Rasterize. To make the selection in step 9 use the Freeform Lasso tool, press Q to switch to Quick Mask mode and refine the selection using the Brush tool with black and white then press Q again to exit. The Bee trails can be added in freehand with the Brush tool, as these can be less accurate and smooth, but still look…

On the FileSilo Download your free resources at www.filesilo.co.uk/photoshopcreative PAINTS AND MARKERS Grab a set of basic watercolour paints and a brush, plus some alcohol-based markers to give bright colours. PLASTIC WRAP You will need a roll of plastic wrap. If you don’t have any, you can draw or paint directly on the glass. GLASS SURFACE You are going to need a glass surface to work on. This will help to keep the plastic wrap flat as you work. Ever since the invention of digital photography, there has been a debate surrounding digital and film. When photography was first invented, it was very hands on. Developing, enlarging and editing film was a difficult and time-consuming process. But like many difficult things, it was very rewarding. Photographers were regarded as artists,…

Take a screengrab from any film, especially one of a fantastical nature and examine it; every object in that scene had to be researched and designed by a concept artist. Concept art is in many ways the ultimate fantasy for young, budding artists, a career in which you can design orcs and spaceships and brave adventurers all day and where reading and researching is as important as actually drawing. This feature focuses on that thought process and the techniques required to bring a fantastical world to life. In order to provide a fairly realistic impression of how a real job might play out, we have created a mini project brief to follow: these concepts will be created for a videogame in the action-adventure genre, something similar to the Uncharted series,…

On the FileSilo Download your free resources at www.filesilo.co.uk/photoshopcreative GAUSSIAN BLUR You can apply a simple soft focus to any image and decide on how powerful it should be by altering the radius. When people think of the Blur filters in Photoshop and Elements, they think of smoothing, adding haziness and distorting your picture. However, the Blur filters should be used as a tool to add focus, rather than remove it, because if you can converge your blur to a specific area of your picture, you can bring out the detail in another area. The key to the Blur filters is to add them around subjects that need focus. By duplicating layers and masking out the excess, you can pinpoint your blur to a specific area. Most of the time…

USING THE TEMPLATE Adding your artwork to a disc template simply gives you an idea of where all the elements sit. You can hide these layers before you print. With the basic CD case designed, it’s time to start creating the artwork for the actual disc. There’s not so much pressure for the design of your disc as it will be hidden behind the cover. You can choose to be as creative as you like, or just follow the basic template of your case; you might even want to consider creating a piece of art that will look good when it’s spinning in your CD player. 01 Insert your image Open the supplied CD template PSD from the FileSilo. Lock the layers and paste the image from your CD case…

On the FileSilo Download your free resources at www.filesilo.co.uk/photoshopcreative In this straightforward tutorial you will explore a range of professional tools available in Photoshop Elements and transform an ordinary photo into a beautiful, surreal composition. You will be surprised at how much you can do with just a basic knowledge of the tools and lots of creativity. You’ll start by creating a gradient background and then apply different techniques, such as blend modes and filters, to create an interesting effect. You’ll learn how to use the Quick Selection tool and the Refine Edge command to create accurate selections and masks. We’ll also cover how to work with custom brushes and modify their settings to add bubbles and other great effects. Photoshop Elements has a very easy and intuitive interface, making…

When creating illustrations in Photoshop it is essential to make sure you are working on the correct layer. You will find you have to go backwards and forwards from layer to layer. It’s really easy to have a brain wave, but to forget to swap back and start working away on the layer you just used. This could mean you have to delete a lot of work you have spent precious time on and re-create it. Try to name all of the layers accordingly, and keep an eye on where you are working. Everyone has done this at some point when using Photoshop, but try to break the habit before it starts.…

1 Sketchbooks Draw in a variety of sketchbooks to keep your work organised. Choose the cover for your sketchbooks and whether they require a passcode, and choose a paper type to draw onto. 2 Configuration When you click on a sketchbook to start editing in, you will have to set up your stylus. Click on Configuration and press the stylus into the centre of the target. This will connect the device and pen. 3 Writing posture You can alter the pen’s settings depending on whether you are right or left-handed and the angle with which you draw onto the surface of the iPad. Click on Writing Posture and choose your setting. 4 Pen styles There are various styles of brushstroke that you can experiment with within the app. Click on…