lightroom 3 beta

parttern

 

In this tutorial i will show you how to make a custom carbon fiber pattern in just 3 easy steps.

Step 1.
Make a new document 4 x 4 px. Select the colors and fill as shown below.

Step 2.
Now that is done we can define the pattern. Go to Edit > Define pattern. Name as you wish then hit ok.

Step 3.
Now you have made the pattern you can now select the area you wish to make carbon fiber and then go Edit > Fill > Pattern and select yours, hit ok again and VIOLA! You have carbon fiber.

Here is a basic example of the pattern in effect.

 

 

Create a Glowing Globe Icon in Photoshop

Freebie, Tutorials by Tyler | June 29, 2009 | 26 Comments »

In this tutorial we are going to create a simple 3D glowing world globe icon. This can then be applied to a logo or one color image instead of a map.

Step 1

In Photoshop lets open up an 800×800px document. Our document doesn’t have to be huge because we are only making an icon.

Step 2

Now we are going to create the basic shape for our icon. Click on the Ellipse tool and hold down Shift, click and drag a circle across the top half of the document. Holding down shift gives us a perfectly round circle.

Step 3

If your colors are set at the default black and white, your circle probably came out black. We are going to change this to a blue to give us a base color to work with.

To change the color, double click on the black square on the circle layer. This will open up a color palette, and we can choose a color from there.

Step 4

Now we are going to go and grab our map image from stock.xchng and open it up in Photoshop. Before we bring it into our document we want to get rid of the white area. To do this, go into Select>Color Range. We want to bring the fuzziness up to 200 and then click on the black area of our document.

Make sure you are using the Pointer Tool (top left in the toolbar) and click on the map and drag it into our globe document.

Step 5

This Image is going to be way too big for our circle so we are going to shrink it down using. Before we do that though we want to drop down the opacity to 50% so that we can see both the map and the circle so we can judge where to line them up.

Now, using Control+T to transform our map we are going to shrink it down.

At this point if we drop the size way down we are going to lose it off somewhere hidden off the document. To make sure this doesn’t happen look for the crosshair that is in the middle of the map, make sure that this is on your document and when you shrink it down it, the map will stay on the screen.

Now, we are going to use the percentages at the top of our screen and drop them down to 15%.

Step 6

We can bring the opacity back up to 100%.

Now to give the globe a rounded, 3D look we are going to make sure we are on our “map” layer. Now we want to Control and click on our “Circle” layer to load that selection.

Go into Filter>Distort>Spherize and change the amount to 100%.

Step 7

With the circle selection that we still have, we are going to do Control + Shift + I to get the inverse selection and then delete. This will get rid of the extra map area we don’t need. Change the map layer’s blend mode to overlay.

Step 8

We are now going to give a little bit of shine to our globe. To do this we are going to duplicate our circle layer and fill with white. Then using Control + T to transform the shape, shrink the shine circle down so we get an oval shape like I have. Try to get the top edges of the circle and the shine to be parallel.

Step 9

Now we are going to take that shine layer, change the blend mode to screen, drop the opacity down to 80% and add a layer mask to it (second icon from the left on at the bottom of the layers palette).

Take a Linear Gradient and with black, click and drag the gradient up to get the shine to fade a bit, as I have done.

Step 10

Now we are going to do some layer styles to give the globe some lighting. First, we want to duplicate the circle layer and drop the Fill down to 0%. This will get rid of the circle but we will still be able to see the layer styles.

Drag the layer above the map layer.

The first thing we are going to add is the Inner Shadow.

Step 11

Next we are going to add a Gradient Overlay. This will give us sort of an inner glow to our globe.

Step 12

Your globe should look something like this so far.

Step 13

Select the “Map” layer. We are going to add some layer styles to it.

The first thing we are going to add is a Gradient Overlay. This is going to add to give our shadow more contrast.

Step 14

Now add a Bevel and Emboss. This is going to give our map a little dimension.

Step 15

Duplicate the circle layer again (Control + J), make sure the Fill is at 0%, and add an Inner Glow with #00C9FF for a color. Bring this layer up to the top of the rest of the layers.

Step 16

Now lets add a reflection. Link all the layers together by clicking on one of the layers and then clicking the empty box to the right of the eye icon on each layer. Then do Control + E. This will combine all our layers into just one layer.

Now duplicate the layer with Control + J and go to Edit>Transform>Flip Vertically (If you just rotate it the reflection will be backwards). Make sure the “Reflection” is just under the bottom of the globe, overlapping a little bit.

Step 17

Add a layer mask to the reflection, and using our black Linear Gradient, click and drag a gradient up until you get something like I have.

Step 18

Drop the opacity of the reflection to 50%.

Step 19

Now we want to add shadow under the globe. So to do this we want to create a new layer (Control + Shift + N). Get your Radial Gradient, and make a small gradient (which we are going to stretch out) using #01133B for a color.

Step 20

Using Control + T stretch out the gradient so it roughly covers the width of the globe.

Final

There you have it, a Globe Icon. This can be applied to other one-color logos, text or images. Just make sure you remember to change your reflection also.

3D Text On Fire

Tutorials by Tyler | March 10, 2009 | 94 Comments »

This tutorial is going to be a little more advanced than the other ones I have done. It shouldn’t be a problem if you have been following along with our other tutorials or have a grasp of Photoshop. So lets begin.

First we are going to need to grab some photos, the links to them are below.

Fire:

http://www.imageafter.com/image.php?image=b17insektokutor079.jpg

http://www.imageafter.com/image.php?image=b17insektokutor075.jpg

http://www.imageafter.com/image.php?image=b17insektokutor074.jpg

Ground:

http://www.imageafter.com/image.php?image=b20grounds080.jpg

Text texture (3rd one down)

http://www.lostandtaken.com/2009/01/11-old-grungy-film-textures.html

Ok now lets get started.

Step 1

Open up Illustrator and type out a word of your choice, in my case I used the word “FIRE” in ITC Franklin Gothic Heavy. Make sure that each letter is in a different text box. Now using Effect>3D>Extrude & Bevel set up your letters in an interesting way, keeping in mind that they are going to be on fire. It doesn’t have to be exactly the same, but something like what I have below. If you are having trouble with the 3D text, you can look at the tutorial on creating 3D text.

Step 2

Open up Photoshop, and create a new document (I’m using 1680×1050). Fill the background with black. Paste the text you created in Illustrator. Make sure you bring in one letter at a time so they are all on different layers. Resize the text and adjust the angle until you get something that you are happy with.

Step 3

We are going to work on the background first, so grab a yellow/orangish color (Something that kind of has a fire look to it) and create a circular gradient with our color fading to 0% opacity. Stretch the gradient out with your transform tool until you’ve created somewhat of a glow under your text.

Step 4

Grab the ground texture that we downloaded and bring it into our document. Decrease the size and adjust the angle so it looks like it is under the text. If you hold down the apple key and drag one of the corners it distorts it, so you can get a better perspective. Drag it so it is above the gradient layer and change the blend mode to multiply. You can adjust the size of the gradient so there is more ground showing.

Step 5

Now we can start adding in the fire. You can use the lasso tool to roughly cut out the parts of the fire you want.

Step 6

Bring your cut out fire pieces into the document and place them in and around the text. Change the blend mode to lighten on your fire, this will get rid of most of the black areas around the fire. Play around with the flames until you get something you like.

Step 7

Now we want to get rid of the sharp edges we have from cutting out the fire from the other images. So what we want to do is click on each layer, apply a layer mask and then use a black brush with a soft edge to start painting out the edge of our fire.

Step 8

Lets give our text a shadow that is cast by the fire, so it will be a fairly high contrast one. Load each layer of our FIRE text and fill a new layer with black, with our selected area. Go into filter>blur>radial blur, put the amount up to 100 and set the blur method to zoom. Repeat that filter with apple + f, then duplicate that layer. Then merge the two layers.

Step 9

Now like we did with the fire, we are going to mask out the spots that isn’t supposed to have a shadow. Like all around the back we want to get rid of, as well as spots where light would come through the letters.

Step 10

Now comes the time consuming part. I usually make a folder for each letter, then at least two different layers for each letter’s shadow and usually one for the highlight. So lets start off with the E. Create a new folder for it in your layers. Then create a layer for our shadow. Use the tool of your choice to get the selections, I’m going to use the polygonal lasso tool (and the pen tool for the curved letters). Now Grab a big black brush and drop the opacity down to 20%. I usually use one that covers most of the shape I’m trying to paint to get an even shadow. Now start painting, one click at a time, making the bottom darker than the top.

Step 11

Grab another part of the E, one that doesn’t touch the area we already darkened and continue shadowing. You can hide the fire layers, it will make the letters easier to see. So just repeat this with all your shadow layers. Creating a new folder for each letter, and a new layer for the opposite dark areas. This is one of those things that the more you do it the more you get better, and it takes practice to get good at it.

Step 12

Now we are going to start working on the highlights. Using the lasso tool (and the pen tool for the curved areas), cut out one top at a time then putting them in the corresponding folders. Set your highlight layers to overlay and use a combination of yellow, orange and white colors to give the tops of the letters a highlight effect. Repeat this for each letter until you get something you like. If you want to add more intensity to the glow, duplicate the layer or create a new layer and start painting on that.

Step 13

Now we want to grab the texture that what got in the beginning. This is going to give our text a burnt look. So bring the texture into the document and size it until you find a good look for the E. Then load the E layer and select the inverse selection using apple + shift + i and delete. Since it is a lighter texture, I am gong to do an inverse, to make it darker (apple + I). Then Change the blend mode to multiply.

Final

This is my process when it comes to creating scenes with 3D lettering. This tutorial was created to give you an idea of how to create something like this with some basic steps and a little time.

3d_텍스트

Step 1

We are going to open up Adobe Illustrator, (using CMYK as your color settings) to start creating our 3D text.

Type out the word "Escape", (I am using the font Impact) and change the color to blue (#1A98BB). This color will be easier to work with, and it will roughly be the color we will be using in our final outcome.

Step 2

Typically, we would use the Extrude & Bevel Tool to create a 3D version of our text, but since Illustrator can't really handle what we want to do, we are going to create it ourselves. (Shown below is what we would get if we used the Bevel & Extrude tool)

Click on your text, and go to Type > Create Outlines. Now copy the text with Command + C and Paste In Place with Command + F. Darken the text using the black slider in your Color window.

Now we are going to shrink the text down and keep it in the same spot at the same time. To do this we are going to click on our dark text and hold down Alt and Shift, then bring one of the corners of the box in.

Step 3

Highlight all of the letters, open up your Pathfinder (Shift + F9). In the Window drop down menu, (if you don't already have it open) and click the Add to Shape Area icon. Click Expand. This will make the two "Escape" words into one shape.

Step 4

Click on the Pen Tool (P) and where there were corners and now "L" shaped areas, click on the corner anchor to delete it.

Step 5

After you get rid of all the "L" areas you can do Command + F, this should bring back your original text. Once you do that, you may notice that some of the rounded edges don't look right. To fix these rounded edges, you can delete the original text we just pasted, click on the Pen Tool (P) and delete the points on the curve until you get an angle that looks right.

Step 6

Now we are ready to bring our text into Photoshop. Create a new document (Command + N). We are going to treat this as a cover design, so we are going to change our settings to 8 inches wide by 10 inches tall and the color setting of CMYK. We will change our resolution to 300 dpi, so it will be print quality. Once we open our document we want to Click and Drag guides a half-inch from each edge (using our ruler—Command + R). This will work as our bleed.

Step 7

Go to stock.xchng to get the image we are going to use for our background. Open up the image in Photoshop, we are going to adjust it a little to suit our purposes.

Step 8

Go to Image > Adjustment > Replace Color. Click on the part of the grass area that is the most yellow and use the Hue to adjust it so it has more of a green look. You can also drop down the Saturation to give it more of a realistic look.

Step 9

Drag our photo into the Photoshop document we made, and resize the photo to fit in the area with the Transform Tool (Command + T).

Step 10

For the background, we are going for a more desaturated look, so we are going to open up our Hue/Saturation with Command + U and drop down the saturation to -20.

Step 11

Now we can bring in our text. We are going to bring in the face of the text first, and then the 3D part, so that we can work with each one individually. So Copy and Paste (Command + C, Command + V) each one into our Photoshop document. If you don't resize the text or zoom in/zoom out of the document at all, both of the text layers should line up perfectly.

Step 12

Now that you have the text and background image in place where you want them, we can start adding in the grass.

Let's start off by creating a new folder (clicking on the folder icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette), we'll call it "grass", then create a new layer within the folder.

Using the Square Marquee Tool (M), Click and Drag a box around the bottom half of the document, below the photo (make sure there is no white gap in between the photo and the box) so that the photo isn't selected. Now click on the foreground color and click on the grass in the photo until you find a dark green. Fill the Marquee box we made with that color.

Step 13

Click on the Brush Tool (B) and change the brush to the generic one-blade grass brush that comes with Photoshop. Now click on the Foreground color and then click on the grass on the background photo. Do the same with the Background-color. This should give you two different but similar greens.

Using F5, open up the brush settings and adjust the Hue Jitter, in the Color Dynamics tab to 20%.

Step 14

Create a new layer (Command + Shift + N) in the grass folder, and start painting from where the background photo ends with a 125px brush. As you move towards the bottom of the document make the brush larger ( ] ), so you end up with about a 200px brush when you get to the bottom. This should be quick so that it leaves holes for the future layers to cover up.

We are going to make this color a little bit darker because this will be under another layer. So go in to the Curves (Command + M) and adjust the Input to 47 and the Output to 55.

Step 15

We are going to repeat step 14, except this time we are going to fill in most of the rest of the holes that we missed the first time around. We don't need to adjust the Curves on this grass layer.

Step 16

Create a new layer (Command + Shift + N) in the grass folder. Now to add some highlights to the grass we are going to use our grass Brush (B) with the same color and paint in just a few areas. Go into the Curves again (Command + M) and adjust the input to 58 and the output to 39.

Step 17

We are going to create a new layer (Command + Shift + N), above the lettering, so we can paint on some grass so it looks like it is going in front of the letters.

After you paint the grass in front of the letters create a new layer (Command + Shift + N) and do a light pass of grass, we are going to darken this layer with the Curves (Command + M), adjust the input to 42 and the output to 56.

Step 18

Now that we have our grass finished, we are going to start working on our lettering.

Create a new folder called "text face" and a new folder called "text shadow" put the text face and the text shadow in the corresponding folders.

Now we are going to Command + Click on the text face layer to create a marquee outline around it, create a new layer in the "text face" folder with Command + Shift + N and fill it (Command + Delete) with #EDE6DA.

Step 19

Go into the "text shadow" folder and create a new layer (Command + Shift + N).

Since our sunlight is coming from the right, as you can see with the trees in the photo, we have to make the brightest part of our text on the right side of each letters. To create our highlights, we are going to use the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L) to select the areas that are supposed to be highlighted, the areas that would get hit by the sun.

Step 20

Using a white 90px Rounded Brush (B), with 0% Hardness at 20% Opacity, start painting strokes onto the areas that we selected. Change the Blending Mode to Overlay.

To get rid of the excess area, Command + Click on the text shadow layer, Command + Shift + I to get the inverse selection, then delete.

Step 21

Now we are going make our shadows the same way we made the highlights in step 19. Once you have your shadows selected, repeat step 20, except this time we are going to use a black brush for our darkest areas.

Step 22

To add in some darker shadows and give our letters more contrast, we are going to repeat step 21, but instead of changing the Blend Mode to Overlay, we are going to change it to Multiply. Also, It will be easier if we change the brush to about at 5% Opacity, this way you can darken the shadow slowly, and it will also blend smoother.

Step 23

The text can be worked on a lot more and have a lot more shadow/highlight details added, but since this is a tutorial we are going to leave it as is and start working on the shadow the text casts on the grass.

Create a new layer (Command + Shift + N) and put it above the "grass" folder. Using a 200px black brush (B) at 100% opacity, and 0% hardness paint under the text, trying to make sure that the black doesn't go under the grass that is in front of the letters too much. Change the blend mode to Multiply.

Step 24

Now we can start tackling the face of the text. We are going to start off by giving it an Inner Shadow. Click on the first icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette and then click on Inner Shadow.

Now go to Bevel and Emboss, on the first icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette, and adjust your settings, something like what I have. These two settings will give the text face an edge.

Step 25

We are going to Command + Click on the text face layer and create a new one with Command + Shift + N. Using the Gradient Tool (G) with a black to 0% Opacity, click on the left side of the text and drag it to the right. This should give the text a gradient that is black on the right. Drop down the Opacity all the way down to 5%.

Step 26

With the text face still selected create a new layer (Command + Shift + N) in the "text face" folder and change your Foreground color to a yellow-orange color (something like #FFC600) and create a Gradient (G) so it is on the top edge of the letters. Change the Blend Mode to Overlay.

Step 27

Create a new layer in the "text face" folder, and take a 200px black Brush (B) with 5% opacity and 0% hardness and click and drag a line just above the grass. This will give us a subtle shadow just above the grass.

Step 28

Now we are going to give our text face a weathered look.

In the "text face" folder, create a new layer, and then using the Square Marquee Tool (M), create a box that covers the "Escape". Fill the box with black.

Step 29

Go to Filter > Render > Fibers and adjust your settings to something like what I have.

Step 30

Deselect the area with Command + D and go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur. Command + Click on the text face, then Command + Shift + I to get the Inverse Selection, delete and change the Blend Mode to Multiply with an Opacity of 5%.

Step 31

Click on the second icon on the bottom of the layers palette to add a Mask to our fiber layer. Using a black to 0% Gradient (G) click and drag from the bottom up so the bottom half of the fibers are gone from the text.

Step 32

And now to finish it off a little bit, we are going to click on the fourth icon at the bottom of the layers palette and open up the Color Balance.

Step 33

And now open up the Photo Filter on the fourth icon at the bottom of the layers palette.

Step 34

Now we are finished, I am going to add some finishing touches with a footer that will bleed over the edge.

Final Image

And that's it! I hope you've enjoyed reading this tutorial.