The following logo design tips are not in any methodical order as all 5 tips should be considered simultaneously from the start of a project to the end.

The 5 tips below are only a suggestion for an effective approach towards logo design projects. There is not really a right or wrong way to design logos but hopefully the following will help.

1. The Concept

It is very important when designing a logo that you spend time developing ideas so that you have a solid foundation for the concept. This development does not have to visually be anything overly fancy just some rough sketches within a sketch book often does the trick as the important thing at this stage is the idea/s for the logo. The final result will certainly benefit from a well thought out concept. By spending time developing ideas with a pencil and sketch pad you improve your chances of developing a great new logo to suit a particular purpose.

2. Research

Look at logo designs currently being used within the area that your logo is intended for by doing a quick search on the internet or referring to books about logo design if you have any. It is often most insightful to see how other designers have communicated something through a logo for your particular market. It is important not to copy another logo but seeing the work of other designers can be most inspirational and can really help to get the initial ideas flowing.

3. The Visual Message

What are you trying to communicate with the logo and is this message being delivered? An excellent test to see how well a logo works is to ask other designers and people you know what they see when they look at the logo. There are also many logo design sites that allow you to submit your designs so that you may receive constructive criticism but do be prepared for some occasionally harsh criticism as different people will appreciate different logos for a wide variety of reasons.

4. Simplicity

A Simple logo design will help to deliver the intended message with clarity. This is especially important if you have a subtle concept incorporated within the design as you do not want the visual message to be missed because there was too much for the viewer to take in. Simple logos will usually also reproduce better when they need to be printed at smaller sizes as logos containing lots of details will loose their clarity when scaled down to very small sizes.

5. Never Over Do It!

This is similar to being simplistic with your logo but this is a common mistake made by many when it comes to creating a new logo. If you try to incorporate too many ideas / themes into a logo it will probably become too busy and the visual message will be lost. Trying to incorporate more than one symbol / graphical element also does not usually look very professional. Try to keep in mind that a logo is not the same as a graphic as a logo needs to be more versatile especially when it comes to reproducing the design at different sizes.

About the Author

Logo Design Monster: UK based graphic design studio with a passion for logo design, web design, graphic design, illustration and more recently blogging.

More logo design tips at:

• logodesignmonster.com
• squidoo.com

Related posts:

1. Logo 101: information, tips and inspiration
2. Creating a logo: The process
3. Design Watch: Design Contests @ Zenhabits/Nielsen Norman Group/Asian Heritage/Karmaloop

When I hear terms like: “Apache” or “SQL” All I can think of is: “ouch, not again, I haven’t trained in that yet”. I don’t immediately understand  developers’ jokes either. For instance, jokes like “there is no place like http://127.0.0.1″ (127.0.0.1 stands for localhost–your ‘home’), I have to Google it first.

I think that happens mostly due to laziness, at least in my case. When you really decide to approach the matter with the perspective that it is not scary, you realize that it wasn’t as terrifying as it seemed. The experience is similar to when you were, once upon a time, looking at CSS coding from the other side of the bench while you were still in the tables camp and by the end of the day, you realized it wasn’t that hard, it just took a bit of commitment.

One of those “scary things” is to set up your very own personal web server to test your web projects like your WordPress templates. But I always feel I don´t have the patience to set it up. Fortunately we have solutions like Opera Unite but that  is not the only option, you can set your free personal web server using free tools. All the required info is placed in http://fpws.org/ by a colleague and friend of mine Charles-Andre Landermaine. In the lines below is an interview with some questions about his fpws.

mao: Charles could you introduce yourself please? Your background and your geeky interest for the web?

Charles: I am a 30 year-old computer enthusiast, and I have professional and personal background working with computing, especially web design and web hosting.

mao: What motivated you to create that page Charles?

Charles: A few months ago, Opera launched “Unite” to “revolutionize” the web. It’s been years that it’s been easy to host your own web site on your computer, so I wanted to show people how to do so as an alternative to Opera Unite.

mao: Why you felt an altertive was necesary?

Charles: Opera Unite doesn’t allow you to use familiar applications such as PHP. One of the problems with Unite is that you rely on Opera’s proxy server, which goes against Unite’s philosophy. Last, but not least, you don’t need Opera to host your web site on your computer.

You can very well keep a low-energy consumption netbook on 24/7 as a file server and web server, which is handy if you’re a web designer who wishes to keep your customers up-to-date with current projects easily. You can also share download spaces for people to download stuff off your computer in a secure way.

mao: Well I was going to ask for the benefits to use a personal web server but you have already pointed some. Could you mention some others?

Charles: Yes, the main benefit is not having to upload through FTP up-to-date stuff from your computer to a remote web server on and on for some one else to see changes. If you are designing a web site or making changes, do them locally, and your customer or coworker will see them just refreshing his page. It also saves you time because you don’t have to upload anything.

mao: Any last thoughs ? for the s2o readers?

Charles: Yes, I know most s2o readers are graphic designers, and at first they may be reluctant prior to hosting their own web site, because of some obscure and lengthy configurations. Fear not, following the procedure is not difficult at all, just read and follow directions properly, it will work for you, and there’s always some one on the web to give you a hand ;)

mao: Charles, thank you so much, for your time and to share your unite alternative for a personal web server, and to iluminate us designers in the dark arts of web developing!

I believe this interview rounds up the subject for itself. Don’t hesitate on leaving your comments, doubts or pieces of advice.  They’re always welcome! :)

Related posts:

1. 24 Free Web Stock Icons
2. 15 Free High Resolution Web Stock Icons
3. 10 Free Web 2.0 Fonts

Hi there! I’m happy to bring to you the third and last part of our Adobe Photoshop crash course. Remember that this is a basic and fast course for people that aren’t used to the software, but are interested in starting to use it. Today we are going to see the (much anticipated) retouching tools, painting tools, type tool, filters and a lot of  extra tips. Get ready!

RETOUCHING TOOLS

It’s time to start working with the retouching tools. The first one is the Healing Brush Tool (J). I have to say that this tool combined with the clone stamp tool (next one) can work miracles for retouching skin and even “erasing” intruders in photos.

So, how does it work? This tool copies pixels from a specific area to another. You have to select the source, called the origin, a clean, ‘good’ place  near the area that you will retouch. In the image below (originally from epydenver) I want to retouch the big pimple on the nose. The nearest clean area is right below it, so it’s going to be my source. To define the origin all I have to do is hold the Alt key and click.

And now, to “paste” those pixels, just click and drag over the area you want to change. You’ll see that this tool copies the texture and blends it with the new area. That’s how the healing tool works.

Here I used the tool over in the whole image to correct imperfections:

A similar tool is the Clone Stamp Tool (S). It also works with origins and destinations (alt+click / click+drag).

See the same treatment using the Clone Stamp Tool:

Tip: A good thing about the Clone Stamp is that you can lower its opacity on the properties bar.

Now we have the Blur/Sharpen/Smudge tools, used to affect specific areas, functioning like a brush. Just click and drag in the areas you want to modify.

See what each one can do.

Blur Tool (applied to the nose and cheeks)

Sharpen Tool (applied in the nose)

Smudge Tool (applied in the boy’s fingernails)

Another interesting group of tools is the Dodge/Burn/Sponge tools group.

What they do:

Dodge Tool (make the image lighter)

Burn tool (make the image darker)

Sponge tool (saturates or desaturates the image – applied here to the whole image, except the lips)

Tip: Always use the Properties Bar for new effects and settings.

PAINTING TOOLS

The first tool you think of when it comes to painting is the Brush Tool (B).  It’s a quite simple and powerful tool.

The default brush is a round and smooth brush, but there are many different brushes to work with. If you click on the upper-left arrow in the Properties bar you can see some brush presets that Photoshop offers.

Have you noticed the Hardness slider? Below is an example of the difference between a 0% hard brush and a 100% one:

To change the color, just click on the Foreground Color at the tool bar and choose a color in the dialogue box.

If you want to paint, it’s also important to learn how to erase, using the Eraser Tool (E).

Let me show you an interesting use of the eraser, apart from painting. I opened a photo of an eye, duplicated the background layer and desaturated the new layer (remember Part II?). Then I erased the iris of the second layer, revealing the layer below. Notice the transparent hole in that layer’s thumbnail.

Next is the Gradient Tool (G).

There are some gradient presets already in Photoshop. Go to the properties bar, click on the arrow near the gradient example and browse some of them.

If you want to create your own, click on the gradient in the Properties bar and edit the colors in the gradient editor.

You can create gradients with a loooooot of colors, like this ugly one that is one of the Photoshop presets:

And also gradients with transparency (opacity).

You also need to know that there are some different kinds of gradients. Check the Properties bar:

See how each one looks.

Linear

Radial

Angle

Reflected

Diamond

DRAWING TOOLS

Some of the most important, but also most complex and advanced tools in Photoshop, are the drawing tools. Especially tricky is the Pen Tool.

This tool and its fellows deserve our full attention, so we won’t talk about them here. We already have a How To that teaches everything you need to know to start using the Pen Tool: How to create a “Fake Vector” image in Photoshop.

Lets continue with the related tools. These two arrows are used to select objects. Like Illustrator, the black Path tool will select a larger object than the white Direct tool, which is used for vector points.

There’s another tool group that creates vectors in basic and custom shapes that can be very useful for drawing.

First thing, I strongly recommend beginners go to the Properties bar and set the the mode to “Fill Pixels” (highlighted below):

I also recommend always creating a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N) before drawing, so you can work freely with isolated objects.

Here I used the Rectangle Tool:

Round Rectangle Tool

Ellipse Tool

Polygon Tool (notice that it’s set for 5 sides)

Polygon Tool (now using the Star property)

Polygon Tool (now using Star and Smooth Corners properties)

Line Tool (several lines with different weighs)

Custom Shape Tool (you can use one from the preset gallery or create your own using paths)

Remember that all these features can be changed using the configurations in the Properties bar.

TYPE

Working with type in Photoshop is really easy. You’ll usually only need the Horizontal Type Tool.

There are two ways to create text: point text and paragraph text. The first one is more commonly used for solo words, titles or small phrases. The second one is used for a larger amount of text, like paragraphs.

To create point text, all you need to do is to click anywhere and start typing. Hit enterto finish.

To create paragraph text, you must click and drag, creating a box, and then start typing.

You always need to hit Enter after typing to confirm and release your text. Then the box disappears and only reappears if you click on it with the Type Tool to edit it.

The configurations are also simple, much like we’re used to in common text editors. Just remember to highlight the text (click and drag like in other software) before setting the font, size, spacing, etc.

Go to the menu Window > Character. Here are the settings for your text. You can change the font, size, spacing, make it bold, italic and more.

And going to the menu Window > Paragraph you’ll see this other panel where you can set the alignment, paragraph spacing and even hyphenation.

SELECTIONS WITH QUICK MASK

In the first part of this crash course we’ve seen basic selection tools. Now you’re able to make selections that are a little more complex, using the Quick Mask (Q). The Quick Mask is a mode in which you can “paint” a selection. Let me show you how.

These are the symbols for the QM mode. When you click on it, the symbol will transform to the second icon below, indicating that you’ve entered the QM mode. You just need to click on it again to exit.

You will mainly work with brushes, and ONLY in black and white (maybe gray shades, but not right now). I selected a round 200px brush 40% hard.

I’ve opened this image (from SXC.hu) and now I want to select the sofa. All I need to do is use the Brush  Tool (color: black / opacity: 100%) to paint that area. Notice that as I painted the sofa using the black brush, a red color overlay appeared indicating the selection.

As I’m done with the “painting”part, I can leave the Quick Mask mode (remember that button?). Automatically, Photoshop creates a selection around the area I painted.

The selected part is the outside, not the inside. So we must go to the menu Select > Inverse (Ctrl + Shift + I) to invert the selection. Now we can make changes to only the couch.

From here, there are plenty of possibilities. I can duplicate the sofa onto a new layer (Ctrl + J) and apply effects without (or only) affecting this layer. Here you see the two layers:

I can make adjustments in one layer, without affecting the other one.

I can even delete or disable the background and get a transparency.

See how cool Quick Mask can be?

FILTERS

To complete this basic Photoshop Crash Course we’re going to talk about filters. Actually, there’s not too much to talk about, they are effects and effects are meant to be seen.

There are a loooot of filters in Photoshop, divided into categories under the menu Filter.

You can try them one by one, or use the Filter Gallery.

I’ll show you what some of them can do to this apple:

Watercolor

Diffuse Glow

Glass

Charcoal

Glowing Edges

Stained Glass

Gaussian Blur

Unsharp Mask

In the filter gallery you can see the effects in real time, before you apply them to the image, and also change their settings.

Well guys, that’s what I can teach you in three “express” lessons. Remember that the more you learn about Photoshop, the more it gets interesting and powerful. There’s a whole universe of tools, resources and things you can do beyond what we’ve seen in the three parts of this crash course. I hope you’ll keep working at it, because Photoshop is really worth the effort. And  remember, Snap2Objects will be here to help you. ;)

Related posts:

1. Ultimate Photoshop Crash Course – Part II
2. Ultimate Photoshop Crash Course – Part I
3. Shiny 3D Text in Photoshop

Here we are for the second part of the Ultimate Photoshop Crash Course (check the first part here). This software is really complex, but we’re making everything simpler for you.

After learning about the workspace, how to create/edit/save documents and understanding layers in Part I, we can now start practicing a little more – beginning with the tool bar. In this article, we’ll explain the essential tools at the top of the tool bar.

The Toolbar: Overview

You don’t need to worry about all the tools right now. We will work with a few tools at a time. The one thing you must pay attention is the Properties bar at the top of the screen, which changes according to the tool you’ve selected. That’s where you’ll find the settings for each tool.

Here are the names of each Tool, and their keyboard shortcut (in parenthesis):

ESSENTIAL TOOLS

BASIC SELECTIONS

The Move Tool (shortcut V) is very important.  As the name says, it’s used to move the objects contained in layers. Try to open a photo, and with the Move Tool selected, click and drag the photo. You’ll get your first stop message, telling that you can’t move this layer. It’s because this layer is defined as the background, the default for any photo you open (Jpg, Tiff).

Go to the Layers panel, and just click twice on the layer’s thumbnail. Then click OK to release the background. Notice that the Background is now called Layer 0 and the little lock symbol has disappeared.

Now you can move the layer using the Move Tool.

SELECTIONS: MARQUEE TOOLS

Let’s start selecting objects. First we’ll use the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M). Notice that the icon has a tiny black arrow in its bottom-right corner. That means that there are other tools hidden under that icon, called a group. To see them, click on the icon and keep pressing the mouse till the group menu appears (give it a second).

We only need to demonstrate the Rectangular Marquee Tool here, because the others work the same way, just in different shapes (ellipses/oval/circle, single row or column of pixels). Select the Rectangular Marquee tool, then click and drag across an area of your image. You’ll get a marquee like this one:

Like the first example, select the Move Tool and drag the selection.

Now you see what a selection really is – a part that you can edit separately. Selections are so important that there’s a menu on the Menu Bar especially for them: the Select menu. With this menu you can deselect, reselect, invert a selection, modify or transform a selection, and more. And remember to deselect the objects after editing, or you won’t be able to do anything else outside of the selected area.

Lets say I don’t like the change I’ve made and I want to go back a step. To undo steps in Photoshop, press Ctrl + Alt + Z as many times as you need (by default, you can undo/redo 20 steps at a time). If you need to redo steps, press Ctrl + Shift + Z. Use the Redo command to get your selection back.

With your selection made again, press Ctrl + J to see something new. Apparently nothing has changed, but take a look at the Layers panel.

The Ctrl + J shortcut duplicates a layer. As we had an active selection, it duplicates only that part of the selection. Now we can move the new layer without affecting the original image.

It’s starting to get fun, isn’t it? The better you know Photoshop, the better it gets to use. Keep up the good work!

Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool again and pay attention to the Properties bar. Remember that I said that it changes according to each tool? Our Properties bar is now displaying settings, or properties, for the active tool–the Rectangular Marquee Tool.

Take a look at the group of four icon on the left. It’s important to know these four settings, as they work for all selection tools: New Selection, Add to Selection, Subtract from Selection and Intersect with the Selection.

New Selection is the simplest one, it can only create separate selections.

See the other ones in action:

Add to selection

Subtract from Selection

Intersect with the Selection

Another important setting is the Feather value (also works for all selection tools). Try setting the feather as 30px, create a selection with the Rectangular Marquee and drag it with the Move Tool. You’ll get a smooth, fading border.

SELECTIONS: LASSOS

The next icon on the Tool Bar is the basic Lasso Tool, grouped with the Polygonal and Magnetic Lasso. The basic Lasso is a free hand selection; it can be hard to get a good result with this tool, especially using a mouse. The Magnetic Lasso is automated, it ‘sticks’ to the lines of your picture, and only works well for some images. Let’s focus on the Polygonal Lasso for simple selections.

Click several times around the element you want to select, creating the shape for the selection. Remember that it needs to have the same start and ending point.

When you finish the contour of the shape (I know, it’s really ugly here, it’s just for learning purposes) the marquee appears automatically. Then you can try moving it with the Move tool or duplicating (Ctrl + J) and moving.

SELECTIONS: MAGIC WAND

Another simple, but sometimes useful selection tool, is the Magic Wand. It creates selections based on similar colors. We can use this for images with a flat background. An useful setting in its Properties bar is the Tolerance setting, which indicates its strength. The wand will end its selection depending on how similar/dissimilar the pixels are.

Open an image with a flat background and click on its predominant color (like white in this case). The Magic Wand selected all the connected white background.

Go to Menu > Select > Inverse, since we actually want to select the model and not the background. Duplicate the selected part of the layer (Ctrl + J) and use the Move Tool to see the effect.

These are the basic selection tools. Later we’ll see about the advanced ones.

CROPPING

The Crop Tool (C) in an extremely useful tool, even for people who just want to edit their photos for Facebook. ;) If you want to crop people or things out of a photo, this is the tool to use.

This tool isolates the part of the image that you want. See how it works by selecting this tool, then clicking and dragging around an area in the image. Notice that the non-selected area looks darker.

Now this is what you get when you hit Enter:

Your image has been cropped to that specific area. (The gray border is actually the Photoshop window, not a border on the image.)

One of the best features of Photoshop is that you can define an exact size to crop your image to. Lets say you know you have a photo frame that is exactly 4x6in. You can crop your photo to exactly 4x6in for print or anything you want. Let me show you how.

I’m going to make a web banner with 300x100px. All I have to do is set up the Properties bar with these values for width and height and the resolution 72ppi (web resolution).

Whatever I do, no matter how large or small I draw the crop selection, the final image after the crop will have 300x100px. If your selection is smaller, say, 60x20px, the tool will expand your selection to fill 300x100px, and vice versa.

Try other sizes and proportions, practicing what you’ve learned.

MAKING ADJUSTMENTS

Now that you know how to handle these tools, let’s start editing the colors and lighting of images with the power of the Adjustments menu.

You can find the Adjustments menu at Menu Bar >Image > Adjustments.

Using the options from this menu is the simplest way to make adjustments to the whole image, but we can also use these settings on individual layers using the Adjustment Layers button. You can do this by clicking on the circular button at the bottom of the Layers panel or, for CS4 users, by using the Adjustments Panel. As both are a little more complicated, let’s work with the menu Adjustments for now.

Above: The Adjustment Layer button.

Below: The Adjustment Palette in CS4.

I’m going to demonstrate some of these adjustments with this beautiful photo from ~markheet.

Notice that it’s a little dark. We can change that with one of the basic light/shadow adjustments: Levels. Go to Menu Image > Adjustments > Levels ( or Ctrl + L).

In this dialogue box you can adjust the dark tones (first slider) the midtones (second slider) and the highlights (third slider). Let your good sense make the job and find the appropriate level. You can see the changes to your picture as you make them if you check the Preview box.

Here you see the result:

The Levels is a simple adjustment tool for light and shadows. You can also try the other ones from the first group in the menu, like Brightness and Contrast, Curves or Exposure.

Time to play with colors. For that we can use another interesting adjustment, called Hue/Saturation (Menu > Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation). Here is our dialogue box:

Play with the sliders to see what happens. The hue changes the color itself, the saturation changes the amount of that color and the lightness makes it darker or lighter. Again, check off “Preview” to see how your changes look.

Also, you can adjust colors using any of the other options in this Adjustment group, like Vibrance (CS4 only), Color Balance, Black and White, Photo Filter and Chanel Mixer.

The other adjustments, besides light and colors, are not typically used for regular editing. Let me quickly show some of them:

Invert

Gradient Map

Shadows/Highlights

Selective Color (applied to the eye’s color)

Now you know the basics for adjusting colors and lightness and to create special effects on your photos. Sometimes this takes a lot of fiddling to get just right, but Photoshop is so cool that it can make these adjustments automatically. Of course, it won’t work great for every image, but it’s worth trying. There are three options in the Image menu: Auto Tone, Auto Contrast and Auto Colors.

In this part we’ve learned to make selections using different tools, crop images and make adjustments to colors and lightness, and how to create some effects. Keep practicing–try to select parts of the photo and adjust that part (select the eye or the lips and apply adjustments).

PS: All the photos we used are from artists on DeviantART.

Related posts:

1. Ultimate Photoshop Crash Course – Part III
2. Ultimate Photoshop Crash Course – Part I
3. How to create a “Fake Vector” image in Photoshop (part II of II)

Hi everyone! We have good news for you. We’re making a Photoshop Crash Course (and soon an Illustrator version as well). In a few simple and fast articles we’ll help people with no knowledge of Photoshop learn the basics, so you can start editing and creating!

Have you always wanted to retouch and edit your photos or make simple manipulations? This guide should be a good starting place for you. Let’s do it!

INTERFACE
When you first open Photoshop, it may be scary – a lot of panels and icons you may not be familiar with. The screen is divided into areas to help you understand their functions. The image below shows the default appearance of Photoshop CS4, which is composed of these basic elements: the Menu Bar, Properties Bar, Tool Box and Palettes.

Click to enlarge

This is what we call the default Workspace. A workspace is the arrangement of palettes and bars that are visible. In Photoshop there are a lot of different palettes besides the ones above. To see the other palette options, take a look at Menu Bar > Window:

3D, Actions, Adjustments, Animation and all the others are palettes that can be turned on or off (make visible or hidden). Also, there are some preset workspaces that you can access by going to Menu Bar > Window > Workspace or by clicking on the “Essentials” button (which is part of the default Workspace) to choose one. As you are not yet familiar with the palettes, let’s stick with the Essentials Workspace.

Photoshop is very customizable. You can change palettes, open new ones, close others, and even save workspace arrangements that you like.

The big panel on the left can became a small column of icons. This leaves more space on the screen for the image we’re working on. Try clicking on the small highlighted arrows. You can also shrink the palette by clicking and dragging the border, like in the image above.

OPENING, CHANGING AND SAVING DOCUMENTS

Before we start using the tools, let’s see how to create, open and save documents. Photoshop offers a large array of formats to work with, but we’re going to focus on the most general ones. Suppose you have a photo to edit and send to your friends. Just go to Menu bar > File > Open and then browse through your folders, select the image file you want, and click on Open.

One of the first things you might need to do with a photo is change its size. For example, you may have an 8MP digital camera. When you take an 8x10in photo with this camera, the digital file will be 3264x2448px (much too big to send to friends by e-mail). Want to know how to resize it to make it smaller? Go to Menu > Image > Image Size. Set the width and height, and pay attention to the resolution (72 pixels/inch for internet) then click OK. That’s it!

There’s a similar command that often confuses people, called Canvas Size. You can see it at Menu > Image > Cavas Size, right below Image Size. What’s the difference between them? Well, it’s better to show you. This is the Canvas Size dialogue box:

If I change the height from 600px to 900px and click OK, this is what I get:

I changed the document, but not the image itself, creating this white area below and above the image.
You can make a simple border using this feature. Set the new size to about 105 percent (you must change the units in the drop-down box, from pixels/centimeters/etc to percent) for both width and height. This is my framed image:

Now you want to save a copy, but be careful! If you use the command “Save” instead of “Save as” you will lose the original file. Go to Menu > File > Save As. Check if the format is JPG and click OK. A small dialogue box should appear. Set the quality level (9 is fine for web) and click OK. You’re done.

CREATING DOCUMENTS

It’s very simple to create a new blank document to work in. A new document is like a piece of paper on which you will work. Go to Menu > File > New.

You can choose settings for your new document in this dialogue box.  You can fill in the name of the document, choose  preset options (see below), or manually set the dimensions, resolution, etc. If you’re not used to these settings, you need some key information before you make your choices.

Are you preparing your work for screen display (websites, slides, etc) or for printing?

1 – If you are preparing your work for screen display: use pixels to define the size, 72 pixels/inch for resolution and RGB for color mode.

2 – If you are preparing your work for printing: use centimeters, millimeters or inches for the size, 300 pixels/inch for resolution and CMYK mode. (You can also use RGB and convert to CMYK when the work is done.)

There are also some presets to help you with this task. I usually use “International Paper” for printing and “Web” for screen.

Now you know how to open a blank document to start creating.

UNDERSTANDING LAYERS

One of the biggest features in Photoshop is the use of layers. They make a huge difference, because you can work with separated elements, apply different behaviors (modes) to each element, resize isolated elements and much more. If you haven’t used layers before, it’s time to start.

I’m going to open an illustration I did based on an iStockPhoto vector I found. My file already has several layers, and was made in Photoshop, which means it is has a .PSD extension. PSD files are documents created and saved in Adobe Photoshop. It’s only appropriate for editing, not for sending to friends or for printing, as they can be very large.

This is the illustration and its Layers palette:

If layers were real, they would be transparent plastic sheets, like the ones used in hand-drawn animation. You can draw on the sheets, place other sheets with drawings on top of  each other, and move/edit each one separately. Together, they make one image. As you can see in my Layers palette, I have one layer for each part of the illustration (face, hair, eyes, lines and blush). Because each is in its own layer, I can turn each part on/off (visible or invisible), and move or edit each of these parts.

See the layers deconstructed below:

And an animation that shows the overlaying:

To turn off one layer (make it invisible), I just click on the tiny eye to the left of the layer, like I’ve done to the Hair layer…

Or, I can turn the Hair back on, and turn the Background off:

Curious about this chess pattern behind her? That’s the way Photoshop indicates transparency. As I turned off the white background, it became transparent. If I saved the image like this, as a png or gif, it wouldn’t have a background. (Quick tip: If you want your files to be transparent for the web, you must use png or gif format when saving.)

If you don’t want to make an element totally invisible, you can change its opacity. The command is in the top-right of the Layers palette. Here I use the dropdown/scale to set the opacity of the Eyes layer to 20%. See the result:

Nice, isn’t it? Now you can see the real magic: the blending options. It’s actually a complex setting, but we’re going to use the basics for now. The blending options affect the behavior of the layer, changing colors, mixing textures, determining how they… well, blend. Lets take a look and see some simple examples.

The Blend options are in the top-left of the Layers palette. All the options become visible when you click on the “Normal” dropdown arrow. Each of these blending modes affects the layers differently. There aren’t too many, so they’re easy to get familiar with. You can try each one in different situations and see what’s best for your work.

They are separated into groups by lines, as you can see. I would roughly describe the second group (Darken – Darker color) as working best for  dark tints, the third group (Lighten – Lighter Color) for light tints, the fourth group (Overlay – Hard Mix) for a mixture of tones, the fifth group (Difference – Exclusion) inverts the colors, and the last group (Hue – Luminosity) works only with colors, not black and white. The best way to understand what each setting does is to play with them. See how different blending modes affect the cheeks layer:

Now see how blending modes affect black and white layers (like the eyes in this case). The results can be surprising.

Interesting how the black disappears with Screen mode and white disappears with Multiply mode, don’t you think? I told you, blending layers is awesome!

Well, that’s it for now. A lot of information, but it’s worth learning. With this basic guide, you can start to understand Adobe Photoshop, which has a huge “universe” of possibilities.

In the next article we’ll start learning actions and practice making changes. Meanwhile you can experiment with what we’ve seen today: open/create/save files, edit images sizes, customize workspaces and use PSD files with layers to play around with blending modes. (If you need layered files to practice on, you can download some from sites like deviantART.)

Prepare yourself for much more information in the next article. See ya!

Related posts:

1. Ultimate Photoshop Crash Course – Part II
2. Ultimate Photoshop Crash Course – Part III
3. Make a Flyer For a Rave Party in Photoshop

In this tutorial we are going to use colors, blending modes and displacement maps to make  a flyer for a rave party. Take a look at the final image:

Step 01

Before creating the new document for the flyer, we’ll open a bigger one to create the main shape for the background, which will look similar to a flower. This new document has 17x17cm, 300ppi and black background. Start making guides to mark the center of the square. Make a white circle using the Ellipse tool (U).

Step 02

Create a smaller circle in another layer. Use a different color to help you set the size.

Step 03

Ctrl+Click the new circle’s layer to create a selection around it. Select the layer with the biggest circle and hit Del to erase the content and leave only a stroke as you can see below.

Step 04

Erase parts of the filled circle with the Eraser tool (E) and then do the same with the other circle.

Step 05

Merge the two layers (Ctrl+E) and duplicate it (Ctrl+J).  Press Ctrl+T and move the rotation center to the middle of the canvas. Now rotate it 30° while holding Shift and hit Enter. Repeat this process 4 more times.

Step 06

Select all layers (except the background) and duplicate. Press Ctrl+T  and right click on the image. Select Flip horizontal and hit Enter to finish. Save this document.

Step 07

Now create a new document for the flyer with 16x11cm and 300ppi. The flyer will be 15x10cm, but we need to make it 5mm bigger (each side) for the bleed area. To define it on your document, create guides 5mm distant from the bounds.

Step 08

Fill the background with a dark color such as #1a1a1a. In a new layer create color spots with the Brush tool, using a soft brush with low opacity. (I’ve used the white background for visualization, it doesn’t make difference between white, black or transparent background) Then change the blending mode to Color.

Step 09

Now we can open the file with the “flower” and bring it to the flyer. Group these layers and change the blending mode of the group to Color Dodge.

Step 10

To add more volume and brightness you can duplicate the whole group, rotate it and make it a little smaller. Duplicate the new group to make the center shinnier.

Step 11

Let’s add an extra touch to the background with a glitter texture. There is this stock image from Tracie76Stock that you can see here. Put the texture in the document and change its blending mode to Overlay. The background is ready.

Step 12

It’s time to create the movement and bring it to life adding people in the flyer. I found at Katanaz Stock these great stock images that fits perfectly with the idea. The female model you can find here and the male model here. First crop the model from the background as you prefer. I’ve used the Color Range and adjusted with the Quick Mask.

Step 13

Using the filter Displace we’ll distort the image to create a nice effect. This filter needs a texture in psd format to apply on the image. These are some suggestions of textures you can use:

• http://t-a-g-g-e-r.deviantart.com/art/texture-67489065
• http://spleen-stock.deviantart.com/art/Spleen-Texture-005a-1367522
• http://xnickixstockx.deviantart.com/art/Wood-Texture-74565428
• http://tearfulcreations.deviantart.com/art/800×600-Texture-64501211
• http://ineedchemicalx.deviantart.com/art/Sun-comes-up-texture-91368233

Just open them at Photoshop and save as a psd file in some recognizable place (the path for the file should not be long or it may not work).
Duplicate the layer and apply the filter – Filter > Distort > Displace. Configure as you see in the image, press Ok and choose the psd file with the texture.

Step 13

Erase some parts of the distorted image using a layer mask. You can make other layers with different textures till you get the desired effect.

Step 14

Repeat the same process for the male model image.

Step 15

Place both in the flyer file and resize.

Step 16

Now place the logos and texts. For the text I’ve used a 2.0 style font, the purple as the main color and its complementary color green. Add more movement to the texts rotating 15°.

Step 17

The texts are disappearing within all the colors shapes, so we are going to add a white background for text. Create a new layer and put it under the texts. Make a white rectangle with the Rectangle tool (U). Rotate it 15°, place and duplicate as below:

Step 18

We still need to blend the man and the women to the ambient. Select the man’s layer and hold Alt key while you click on the adjustment layer button in the bottom of the layers panel, then choose Gradient. Mark the option “Use previous layer to create clipping mask” in the dialogue box and click on Ok.

Step 19

Use a colorful gradient and position the colors to make them stay aligned with the man’s layer as you see below. Then click on Ok and change the adjustment layer mode to Overlay. Do the same for the woman.

Final Image

Download  20MB .zip in [ .abr ]

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Related posts:

1. Shiny 3D Text in Photoshop
2. How to create a “Fake Vector” image in Photoshop (part II of II)
3. Ultimate Photoshop Crash Course – Part II

This tutorial is a step-by-step to help you making photo manipulations only with vectorial elements, integrating Photoshop and Illustrator.

These are the initial and final images:

Step 01 – Preparation

Before creating the elements to make the composition, you must prepare your image. Make the basic adjustments and then separate the girl from the background (but don’t delete it), so that we can put objects behind her.

Step 02 – Flowing shapes

We are going to work with Illustrator in integration with Photoshop, so, we’ll keep changing from one to another all the time. Open Illustrator and create your main color palette, according to your image. We’re going to use these colors for all elements. The first elements to insert are some flowing colored lines. Remember to place a copy of your image in background with low opacity to help you composing the image.

Create 5 rectangles like you see here (and keep a copy of them, you’ll need it later):

Select them and go to the menu Object > Envelope Distort > Make with mesh. Use these settings and click Ok:

If you are not used to this tool, don’t worry, it’s simple. Basically, you can select a row of knots using Direct Selection Tool (A) and manipulate this row using Scale Tool (E) and Rotate Tool (R). These three tools are enough for this situation.

With the shape ready, copy and paste into Photoshop using Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V. This is why I love working with these two softwares, they work great together and it’s so easy to copy from one to another. I recommend you to choose “Smart Object” when you paste the element, then you’ll be able to resize it anytime on Photoshop without quality loss and also open the element again on Illustrator, change  the vector and bring back to Photoshop.

Step 03 – More flowing lines

Let’s fill a little more that background. Remember when I said to keep a copy of the rectangles? Let’s use it now. Select them and go to Object > Envelope Distort > Make with warp. Use these settings:

Place it on Photoshop and lower its opacity.

Step 04 – Blending

The blending tool is pretty interesting and can make nice effects. Make two lines using the Line Segment Tool (\) like you see bellow. Choose colors from the initial palette for the strokes.

Click twice on the Blend Tool (W) and set:

Click on one line and then click on the other. It will create the blending, making other lines between them.

Place on Photoshop.

Add a mask and edit it with gradients or brushes to make the lines fade out.

Setp 05 – Squares

In Illustrator, make a square (rotate if you want to get a lozenge) and fill with a gradient like this:

Duplicate the shape some times, making it smaller.

Place some of them, rotate and use different sizes.

Step 06 – Circles

Use the same process to make and apply the circles.

Step 07 – More shapes

We’re going to use the blending again, now with drawn shapes like you see bellow.

Click twice on the Blend Tool (W) and use these settings:

Place on Photoshop.

Step 08 – More blending

Create two paths using Pen Tool (P) with different color strokes (but still colors from the palette) and blend like we’ve done before.

Place on Photoshop

Step 09 – A detail

Let’s put some interference in the model. Again, use the Pen Tool (P) and the Blend Tool (W).

Place on Photoshop

Create a mask and erase some parts to make it softer.

Step 10 – Explosion lines

Create some small lines using the Line Segment Tool (\).

Place on Photoshop.

Use masks and gradients to erase some parts.

Final image:

Use your creativity to create different elements to compose photo manipulations based on vector elements. It’s possible to make great compositions and arrangements. Hope you like that and if you create something like this, please post the image on a comment. ;)

Related posts:

1. Free Ecological Vector Design Elements
2. Free Vector Design Elements: Emo
3. Free Vector Design Elements Pack 04

Last week we selected 20 tutorials using the 3D tool in Illustrator. Now here’s our own tutorial to make a simple graphic become a graphic art.

This is the final result of the tutorial:

Step 01 – Graph
Create a circle and a square. The square must start right in the middle of the circle. Colors doesn’t matter at this point.

To make the first slice, duplicate the circle (Ctrl+C – Ctrl+F) and select the new circle and the square. Use the pathfinder window (Window > Pathfinder) to get the intersection like you see below.

Then you get these two separate shapes, but you still have to crop the circle:

Duplicate the slice (Ctrl+C – Ctrl+F), select the new slice and the circle. Use the pathfinder again to subtract (Minus front) to get this:

The other slice is easier to make, just use the Scissors tool (C) clicking right in the middle of the main slice and in the other extremity. It will separate the shapes.

Notice that the line that you’ve cropped with the Scissors tool doesn’t have a path between the anchor points. Fix this by selecting both anchor points with the Direct Selection tool (A) and clicking on the “Connect selected end points” button in the properties bar. Do the same for the points of the main shape.

Now you have all you need to start making the 3D graph.

Step 02 – 3D
Select the bigger slice, go to the menu Effect > 3D > Extrude and Bevel. Make your own settings or use the same as the image. Remember to turn on the preview.

In order to use the same settings in each slice, go to the Graphic Styles panel and add a new style. Just apply the stile to the other slices.

Make the smaller slices thinner. Go to the appearance menu and double click the 3D Extrude and Bevel. Change only the Extrude Depth value and keep the other configurations.

Step 03 – Color
It’s time to get some color. Expand all slices (Object > Expand appearance) and ungroup each one twice. Notice that the round shapes in the bottom need to be united (using the pathfinder again). Now that you have these parts separate, add colors as you wish. Soft gradients make a nice effect.

Add transparency by selecting the top shape from the smaller slices and changing the opacity to 70%.

Let’s add some reflection and make it glossy. Select the top shape from the bigger slice and go to Object > Path > Offset Path. Turn on the preview and set a negative value (-10 or -15) according to the size of your graph. Paint it white and change opacity to 30%. Do the same on the other slices.

Step 04 – Shadows

Time for the shadow. Duplicate the bottom shapes, paint it black and send to back. Before apply the Blur (Effect > Blur > Gaussian blur) you must unite these black shapes using the pathfinder. Set the opacity to 60% and repeat for all slices.

Step 05 – Shiny

Now we’re going to make a shiny white line. Create a small circle and smash it to make a thin line. Select the Convert Anchor Point tool (Shift+C) and just click on the extreme parts of the circle. It’ll make the endings thinner.

Paint the smashed circle white and open the Brush panel. Click on the small arrow and go to New Brush. Select Artistic Brush, click ok and you’ll have a new brush on the library.

Use the Pen tool (P) to make a path like the one bellow. Then apply the brush you’ve just created. Make other lines too.

For the shiny stars, create a common star using the Star tool, go to the menu Effect > Distort and Transform > Pucker and Bloat. Define the values bellow and click Ok. Place the star and duplicate.

The star is not shiny yet, so, create a circle and add a white to transparent radial gradient (if you are not using CS4 version, make the gradient white to black and change the transparency mode to Screen). Duplicate for the other star.

Step 06 – Numbers

Let’s add 3D numbers too. Use a bold font for the numbers. Use any color for now, except black (it makes the 3D preview a little confuse).

Select one number and go to Effect > 3D > Extrude and Bevel. Make your settings and click Ok. As you did before, create a graphic style to repeat the configuration for the other numbers.

Expand the texts and then ungroup twice. Select all the parts from the back and unite them with the pathfinder. Now you only have the front and the extruded part. Colorize them as you wish.

To make the number’s shadow, create a circle and add a black to transparent gradient (or black to white gradient if you’re using CS3 version or bellow and change the transparency mode to multiply). Smash the circle and place it underneath each number. Lower the opacity to 60%.

With simple techniques you can create a nice look, shiny and transparent. The Illustrator 3D tool is easy to use and can make great effects. Add a soft gradient if you like, and then you have something like this for the final result:

Related posts:

1. Shiny 3D Text in Photoshop
2. 25 Tutorials using 3D in Adobe Illustrator
3. Illustrator 101: installing, setting up and getting it running

The Illustrator 3D tool can do amazing things, but it’s still a mystery for many users. Thinking about that, we collected 25 tutorials from beginners to advanced to help those who want to start using this feature and those who want to extract more from that.

BEGINNER

Explaining the Illustrator 3D filter

3D bowl

3D vase

3D logo

3D rings on illustrator

Illustrator iPod

3D logo

LCD alarm clock

Create a rotatable globe in adobe Illustrator

How to make 3D vector vintage stars

Christmas lights

Cuore glossy

ADVANCED
3D logo tutorial

How to create funky 3D springs in Illustrator

How to create sheet rolls with custom spirals

How to make detailed 3D vector tire in Illustrator

Create a milk bottle with a funny cow label

Turn a boring bar graph into a 3D marterpiece

Create a checkered 3D chess figure scene

How to create an open book with illustrators 3d extrude and bevel tool

Design gift boxes using illustrator’s 3D tools

TYPE
Create a vibrant 3D pixel type treatment

Create a flowery text effect

Vector 3D Lighting Text

Let’s make a playful yet robust 3D letter design

Related posts:

1. How Can Webdesigners On Linux Survive Without Adobe?
2. Fonts 101 – Tips, categories, tools, tutorials and more
3. How to make a shiny transparent 3D graph in Illustrator

Roy Lichtenstein has inspired many artists till nowadays, with his beautiful paintings simulating the comic style, marked by the presence of primary colors and reticulated aspect. Now we are going to digitally recreate this style in a newer vision using the vexelling technique in Photoshop.

This is the final result:

Step 1

As it’s used to do in vexelling, we’re going to use a base image and trace on it. I found this photo of a beautiful blond woman (as Lichtenstein characters) at stockxpert. Crop it to make a square like comic strips.

Step 2

Let’s start tracing. You must have some skills on the Pen tool – this tutorial will help you if you need to practice such skills. Start from the bigger parts and then go to the details. Remember to mark the option Paths at the Properties bar. Trace the face as you see in the image.

Step 3

Create a new layer to apply the fill. Right-click, go to Fill Path and choose a light color for the skin.

Step 4

Do the same for each color, always in a separate layers. The image looks creepy, but don’t worry, everything will look better with the strokes.
5-10

Step 5

We’re going to create the strokes now, but before using the Pen tool, you must configure your brush. Choose a hard round brush and open the Brushes panel (F5). Go to Shape Dynamics and set the control to “Pen Pressure” and the minimum diameter to 25%. It won’t let your stroke get too thin at the extremities. The brush size will be chosen according to the needs.

Step 6

Start creating the paths with the Pen tool. To apply the stroke, set the foreground color to black (D), right-click and go to Stroke Path. In the dialogue box, choose Brush as the tool and mark the option Pen pressure.

Step 7

Repeat the process for all the strokes and details like the eyes.

Step 8

Create a dot pattern to make the reticulated effect. For that, open a new document with 16x16px with transparent background. Create a light brown circle in the center and duplicate it to the extremities like in the image. Go to menu Edit > Define Pattern and now it’s ready to use. Also make a white one.

Step 9

Using the Pattern Overlay from Layer Styles, apply the dot pattern on the skin and background.

Step 10

Use the Ellipse tool to make the thinking balloon. Apply a black stroke and add the text using a comic font (this one is ACME Secret Agent).

Step 11

Add a final touch making a frame. Set the background color to white (D). Go to Image > Canvas size and set width and height to 104%. Change de background color to black (X). Repeat the canvas size adjustment and check the result:

Related posts:

1. Shiny 3D Text in Photoshop
2. Beautiful and creative Toy Art roundup
3. Avant-Garde Art Movements in the 20th Century