Photoshop, What is it?

Photoshop is an image manipulation program developed by Adobe. It is sold on it's own or in a package of several multimedia manipulation tools known as the "Creative Suite". The newest package is the Creative Suite 4, brinigng small additions and revisions over it's predecessor, CS3.

So, why do we use it?

There are many reasons as to why people may use photoshop. I mainly use it for fun but sometimes, it is pretty useful when having to do projects involving images or animation.
The things we can create with photoshop are endless. Ranging from simple or complex picture enhancement; forum signatures or avatars; website designing; or abstract images, it can prove to be very useful for many different purposes.
The need for such applications has increased over the years. I only used Dreamweaver once prior to uni, and that was to create a website from scratch for a school project. In those days, it wasn't licensed under Adobe and Photoshop was a software not many people knew or cared about, except companies. Now, Photoshop has become somewhat of a standard for image manipulation enthusiasts. If you were to ask someone what they used to create their avatar or signature, I'm sure they will say "Photoshop" or "GIMP". Recently, I combined the use of Photoshop and Dreamweaver to create a website. I didn't think it was possible, but through these software revisions over the years, Adobe has made such things easy to do.

New features added within CS4 include animations (without the need of Adobe Flash) and 3D rendering (I don't remember it being in CS3). I don't use 3D rendering because my GFX card doesn't support it, meaning it's software rendered and, in turn, very slow.

Photoshop is not a hard program to get to know. It's complexity ranges way, way lower to a programming language. It's easy to teach yourself how to use photoshop, you just have to keep using it to get use to all the tools avaliable. I will discuss the different tools and their purpose later in the blog.

There are alternatives avaliable to Photoshop which some people may find easier to use. I personally prefer it [Photoshop] because I've used it longer but some others avaliable are GIMP (free) and Microsoft Expression. The Expression package is only really necessary for creation Silverlight Applications though but I'll name it incase you want to check it out.

So, hopefully that's given you an idea on what Photoshop is. In the next post I'll be going over the tools, their purposes and the importance of them.

Ideas on a new project/signature

It's been quite a while since my last post. The previous posts have just been a few things I have worked on in the past. I haven't drawn in about a year but I'm definately going to get back into that really soon. Hopefully something is still there skill wise. I'm not showing off or anything because it does seem that way. I just wanted a central place to have those should the pc become incapacitated.

Moving along, I have a couple of ideas for a new project or signature in photoshop. My brother didn't know how to follow a tutorial for a broken/shattered glass stock image (It wasn't worded very clearly and most of the vocabulary used was mainly PS jargon) so I agreed to help him. In the end, I liked how the stock image looked and was wondering what I could encorporate something like that into. It could be used for a signature but it doesn't seem practical. Or even a mock up theatre/cinema promotional poster but again, broken glass stock images could only be used for horror genre movies, therefore I wouldn't really want to do anything around that. I'm still brainstorming. I might duplicate the stock image and post it up for a few outside sources should anyone ever read this.
I've been thinking to make a new signature, mainly around vegas. Dice and cards (I'm not a gambler myself) seem like quite a good idea to base a new signature on. I'm already thinking the stock background could be cream, with red dice on white dots, cards planted somewhere on the signature. THe cards could be a render or I could try to search for another render to place but I'm not sure whast would suit it. Open to suggestions as always.

If I ever make any process on it, or any new ideas surface, you'll see it here first.

CS3: Vector Images/Cartoon Style

So, on the subject of this cartoon style image i've been trying to achive, I may of found a way, but pretty time consuming way of doing so.

Open up Photoshop (of course) then get your image.

Duplicate the layer, change this duplicated layer to colour dodge, then press ctrl+I

Go to filter>Blur>Gassian Blur and change it to 7.0

Now go to layer>new adjustment layer>threshold

Press ok and change the threshold to 234

Create a new layer

change the blending mode of this layer to multiply

Select your brush and a colour that most matches your skin colour then colour it in

Do the Face first, then the lips and finally the hair. If there's any clothing colour that in too.

Sometimes the lines don't appear around some of your features (it happened for one side of my tee). If this happens, hide all the layers from being visable (by clicking the eye next to the layer) except your original picture. Make sure your layer for colouring is still selected though and carefully brush over it.

One done, zoom in and check for any small areas you may have missed out.

If you want, cut out the background and use the paintbucket tool to make a different background depending on your preference. Add a border or stroke to finish

That should do it.

CS3: Cartoon Effect

A goal of mine since I started using Photoshop was to be able to get a cartoon like effect on pictures. A cutout filter on it's own didn't give me the outcome I wanted. Sure it was 2D but it had it's flaws and didn't make the picture look very detailed (for example, on a face, the skin colour would blend into the colour of the eyes, makes it look a bit weird).
While browsing through some effects, I accidently made one of my pictures have this effect (not the same one I'm after, but it's a start) by using the "Poster Edges" filter.
The trick to this is to have the 'Edge Thickness' and 'Edge Intensity' at the maximums. Lowering them takes away the detail of the effect but you can lower them to your preference. Also, have the posterization at 0. If it's high it lowers the influence the effect has on the original picture (therefore making them less 2D).
It does tend to put small dots on the pictures, dots not visible on the original. This is just pixels (I assume).

I'm still working for that effect I'm after, but this is a well needed breakthrough.

P.S. - As you can tell, I use brackets alot :p

CS3: Dexter Avatar

So one of my new found "things to do" involve watching a show called Dexter. It's a TV series which follows a PD member who 'clenas up the streets' by killing those who have murdered others and evaded the law.
Going on this theme, I decided that this was a great subject on a new avatar. I remembered seeing a Blood Splatter wallpaper on the protagnists screen and his field of work is Blood Splatter for the PD.
I went on DeviantArt to grab a splatter brush and used an appropriate hex code (Can't remember what it was). SPlattered a few times using a reddish colour. I then got a picture and cut it to seperate it from the background.
I then decided to put an effect on it (an idea from a previous avatar involving the Godfather) and found the perfect one when I realised the colour of the effect changes depending on the colours you have selected (Which was White and Red).
I will, in the near future redo this avatar but keep the font white and the text inside one of the splatter areas (gives it a cool effect).
Enjoy! (the size is small because I made it as a profile pic to a game I was playing at the time)

CS3: Background in Text+WALKTHROUGH

Two days ago, I discovered a methods (although pretty long winded compared to others in steps) to put a background into text. I thought it could come in handy for custom text effects or even for a profile picture depnding on how you plan to use it.
For the First time on this blog, I will be giving you guys a walkthrough on how to put texture into text using Photoshop CS3. This will be a detailed guide explaining what you need to do.

Ok, Start by opening Photoshop, Go to New, make the pixels whatever you like (I'll be using 550x550) and do it on a transparent canvas.




Go to the Text Button and type what you like (I'll type H2Origami). Then, click on the layer and press ctrl+t and stretch it out a little (or the text will look too small).



Open up the file you want as your background (I'll use a bright cloudy picture taken last year during a road trip to Stanstead). Go back to your text document and CTRL+Click the thumbnail next to the layer



Go to your picture, go to select then all then go to copy.



Return to your text and go to edit and then paste into.

The texture is now in side the text. We can adjust this to stretch out the picture so it fills all the characters, bind them together to create cool effects as well as other things.



Once you get the hang of it,. you can then make different styles of these. A few of them are shown below.

CS3: First Signature

Hello everyone.



So, As a practice, I have created my first signature for a game I was currently playing at the time known as Gaia Online. Gaia Online is a online community social network with avatars and games including the newly formed zOMG, Gaia's MMO.

At this time, I had an obsession with an anime known as Darker Than Black. I had a few snapshots from the anime and got an idea to try and use one of the main protagnists as a render.

I was able to cut out the background and seperate it from the render (Using the Magic eraser, didn't know how to use pen tool). Then I pasted it on a white background, splashed a splatter brush on the background and changed the colouring of the render to a black and white style colouring scheme. (Can't remember what I played around with to get it).

It did come out pretty good for a first newbie sig. Using simple steps, you could create appealing signatures.

[CS3] Avatars using real pictures as backgrounds

This is a very interesting topic for discussion. I was thinking about the idea of implementing the use of real backgrounds into the bar-style avatars. I think, if used correctly, it could bring a new level of creationism into this new style of designing I have adopted.

The ideas with the new style are floundering. THe background could be given a filter to make it more cartoony or more abstract. Either way, it is a method I will be expanding with in the near future.

I decided to give it a go using a gaara render from a site. The background is a desert.

[List] - Hex Codes

I keep having this problem of forgetting the hex codes to colours which I think of during creations. I needed somewhere to put them where they won't get lost and then I remembered I had this blog!

Blood Red - #910503 OR #9E0508
Gold - #D4AF37
Navyish Blue - #225277
Lightish grey - #424242
Artic Blue - #E0F1FF

Photoshop CS3: Creating a Profile Picture [Part 3]

It's done. Pretty easy to do unless you want to do something different to the background such as paste in a stock image.You can make it alot nicer if you want to put renders which go well with the background. This one is pretty noobish but it's only a beginner attempt and also an example.

Finished product:

Photoshop CS3: Creating a Profile Picture [Part 2]

Create the bars [DONE]
Transparent Gaps [DONE]
Background for bars [DONE]
Rectangle border [DONE]
Render [DONE]
Name Tag
Appropriate Font & Colour for name tag

Since this is my first attempted at a different style of avatar, I decided against adding a background from a picture for the sake of overcomplication. I instead decided to use 2 colours and add a cloud filter on the rectangles. I decided to use Black & Red since I already had in mind what render I wanted. I asked my friend who told me my old pictures pretty much suck what border to put around the rectangles. He told me gold, good choice. This was accomplished through highlighting the rectangle using the rectangle marquee tool, right clicking inside the spcace and clicking "stroke". I chose to make it 2 px since I wanted it to somewhat stand out. I added the render, resized and rearranged my layer to suit my fitting. I made a smaller rectangle and lowered the opacity to keep the name tag in, but I'm having the toughest of times finding a decent font.

HEX codes to remember:
Gold - #D4AF37
Navyish Blue - #225277

Photoshop CS3: Creating a Profile Picture [Part 1]

I've begun my task of creating this picture. I've split the tasks into different segments.

Create the bars [DONE]
Transparent Gaps [DONE]
Background
Rectangle border
Render
Name Tag
Appropriate Font & Colour for name tag

I've been able to create the bars (easily enough) using the rectangular marquee and paint bucket tools. I set the colour of the bars to black just so I could tell where they were. I've ran into a wall getting the transparent gaps however. When you save the picture as .PNG it keeps the transparency. However, when you upload the file to the game, it turns the picture into a black box. My only other option was to save it as a jpeg but this automatically puts a white background making the gaps white.For a good 2 hours I was racking my brain trying to figure out how excatly to get the lines transparent. Then, I found the solution. Find the page's background colour and make the gaps that colour to blend it in. I was able to find the colour's hex code from the page source and then paint the gaps the same colour, achieving the goal I had intended (it may not be transparent, but it gives the illusion of it).
Now comes the hardest part, finding a suitable background.

Photoshop CS3: Creating a Profile Picture Intro

I have made a few avatars for a game I'm playing. The avatars I've made however are only desgins and not the standard "background and picture". I wanted to be dynamic and have a dynamic picture.However, one of my friends who plays the same game described my profile pictures as "dunout" and if I can make one like a few others in the game, why don't I instead of making the rubbish I do now. It took me by suprise no doubt that he felt that way about my creations. I think a few others may share the same views of my designs so I've decided to have a try at these other profile pictures. Most of these pictures have 3 or more rectangles with transparent spaces between them and a dynamic faded design or colour in these bars, followed by a render in the front and a name tag. This will be my next task for a couple of days. I shall attempt to make one of these.

Comic Style Picture [NMH] Continued

It seems that the majority of people prefer the Graphic Pen style [Black and White] to the Note Paper Style.
I would like to put one last effect on the picture. The graphic pen but in the colour of red and black to see how it turns out.
Final Effect:

Comic Style Picture [NMH]

Hello guys, it has been a while since my last blog post.
I haven't been using photoshop for a while due to almost zero time on the computer and it seems like my skills and immagination have turned to mush.
Today, as I sat frustrated at my lack of skill, I watched the trailer for the upcoming No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle. The end gave me an idea on a new profile picture style.
I thought about making a discoloured wall like background similar to that of the trailer but I didn't know how to do it [open to suggestions]. Then I decided to try and use a slanted building background, add an effect to it and the render and see how it turned out.
I have two styles in mind but it has presented a problem. I cannot use one style for both the render and the background as they both belnd into each other too much. It could be used but alot of people will not realise where the render is.
I cannot intertwine the two effects as they both do not suit each other (or atleast the colours don't).
I need to decide how to do this.

The first style [Note Paper Red] vs the second style [Comic Style Graphic Pen Black] :

PS - Upon decision and completion, the size will be reduced to 150 x 150