Posts Tagged 'Tutorials'

12 Photoshop Tutorials: Awesome Light Effects

Published December 30, 2008 Graphic Design , Tutorials 1 Comment
Tags: , , ,

Companies are really utilizing Adobe to add interesting bursts of color, rays of light and other photo effects to make their ads surreal and beautiful. I am partial to Illustrator, but maybe it’s because I never learned how to make these beautiful swooshes myself. I sifted through tons of lighting tutorials and found these which seemed to be not too cheesy, and not too difficult! I hope these can help you give your work another dimension. I’m excited to test them out.

abduzeedo
Magic Lighting Effects

psdtuts
Photoshop Explosion Effect

signalnoise
The O Series

psdtuts_smoke
Creating a Stunning Digital Smoke Effect

psdtuts_glow
Advanced Glow Effects

lines
Lines Tutorial

aurora
Hightech Swirling Aurora

10steps
Amazing Photoshop Light Effect

energyshperes
Creating Energy Spheres

spacelighting
Space Lighting Effects

lines02
Luminescent Lines

duskylighting
Dusky Lighting Effect

There are a lot of designers that use these effects but I stumbled on a few today. Very Impressive!

craigshields
See the portfolio of Craig Shields

chuckanderson
See the portfolio of Chuck Anderson

-Mel

Creating Halftone Effects in Illustrator

Published December 3, 2008 Graphic Design , Tutorials 3 Comments
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Every time I see a halftone used in a design I beg Mel to write a blog on how to create those halftones. I have finally found a clear, descriptive tutorial that is super easy from Vectips called “Creating Halftone Effects in Illustrator.” I never knew how easy this could be. Thanks Ryan for the great tutorials!

What is a halftone?

According to Ryan from Vectips, halftones simulate continuous tones with equally spaced dots of varying size. The eye blends these tiny dots into smooth tones. So anything that has a continuous tone can be simulated by a halftone.

Getting started

1. Create a shape with a gradient, blend or gradient mesh.

2. Go to Effects>Pixelate>Color Halftone. Change the Max Radius to 20 and keep the rest of the settings the same. If the dots in the halftones are too small or too big change the Max Radius by double clicking the Color Halftone effect in the Appearance Panel.

3. Expand the image. Object>Expand Appearance. With the image selected, the Control Panel defaults to the Live Trace option (very cool thing I never knew about). Click the Arrow Button beside the Live Trace button and select Tracing Options.

Mode: Color (select if your object contains color, hopefully you are using black and white)

Max Colors: Dependent on how many colors you used, if any.

Path Fitting: 1 px

Minimum Area: 1px

Corner Angle: 1

Ignore White: Check this box.

I saved these settings as a preset in the Tracing Options so I can easily go back and repeat the previous steps.

4. Expand. Press the Expand button on the Control Panel and now your image is vector.

halftone1

Halftone from Photos

I knew how to apply a halftone to a photo in Photoshop but I never knew you could apply a halftone in Illustrator! This is great.

1. Place and Embed your image in Illustrator.

2. Click Edit>Edit Colors>Convert to Grayscale.

3. Apply the same settings as before (if you don’t like the size of your dots you can change the Max Radius)

4. Change colors accordingly.

mhalftone

I think I prefer doing my halftones in photoshop (you have a little more control of the dot size and contrast, but it’s great to know I can create them in both programs)

Halftone Swatcheshalftonestock

There are some stock halftone options in illustrator. They’re not as versitile as the techniques above but are worth checking out.  To open the swatches, click on the pop-up menu in the Swatch Panel. Then go to Open Swatch Library>Patterns>Basic Graphics>Basic Graphics Dots. The last 5 swatches are the halftone swatches. To read the full article read here.

Healing & Patch Tool Tutorial

Published November 24, 2008 Graphic Design , Tutorials 3 Comments
Tags: , , , , , ,

I have always been a huge fan of the clone tool in photoshop and recently I was told that the healing brush in photoshop is far superior. I needed to investigate this and found a few blogs that were quite helpful on the subject.

The Healing Brush lets you correct imperfections in your picture in a similar way to the Clone Stamp Tool. Like the Clone Stamp Tool, you paint with sampled pixels from your image which you can switch the ‘Alt’ button. The Healing Brush Tool does an excellent job of matching together all of the relevant shades and textures, which results in a seamless finish. Read more about the spot healing brush here.

I found another good post on a photoshop blog that gives step by step instructions to fix wrinkles, bags under the eyes and skin tone with the patch and healing brush tool. For their step by step instructions click here. Below is my version of following this tutorial.

1. Select an image that needs enhancement.

meesh2

2.First take the red eye out with the red eye tool that lives in the same tool bar as the healing and patch tool.

red-eye

Select the Healing Brush tool (the little bandaid) in your side tool bar. Adjust the brush size to suit the area you will work on. Pick a sampling point by clicking Alt+click the area you want to use as a source and then click and drag the brush over the part you want ‘healed’. First I’m going to start with the lines in the forehead. You can always ctrl+z and retry for desired effects.

meesh3

Make sure you create a snapshot of your work at this state. (This is something I never knew you could do in photoshop and a really helpful step). To create a snapshot go into the History palette and click on the icon to the left of the “trash can.”

3. Lets fix those bags! The Patch Tool is my weapon of choice. To get rid of dark puffy areas below the eyes use the patch tool to draw a selection. Then drag the selection to another similar part of the face to replace colors and tones and release the mouse button. Repeat step 3 for the other eye.meesh6

4. Keep it real. After everything is blended the face can look kind of fake (and alien-like!). To make it more natural use the History Brush tool to paint some of the old details below the eyes. This is why we created a snapshot in Step 2. Now create another snapshot.

meesh8

5. Select the History Brush tool. Then go to the History palette and check the box to the left of your first snapshot. Select the appropriate brush. (you may want to lower the opacity to make it look more natural when you back back in some details). Now start painting back some of the detail and waa-lah, you are now a professional with the Healing and Patch tools.

meesh7

Thanks Tai for turning me on to the healing and patch tools. They are super easy to use and give quick results.

How to make a movie poster – with example!

Published November 18, 2008 Graphic Design , Mel & Michelle , Tutorials 13 Comments
Tags: , , , , , ,

mendedposter_finalI am in charge of creating all of the promotional materials (poster/flyer/tshirts/website) for my friend’s movie: “Mended.” I created this poster and I wanted to share my process with everyone.

STEP 01: Research

The themes of this movie include heartbreak, recovery and surrealism. The director described the film with certain words and I spent hours on the internet finding imagery that depicted her themes. Forest, creepy, eerie, curious, surreal, heartbreak, revival, interaction, engaging, dark, intriguing.

GREAT blog posts about Movie Poster Inspiration: Design Fix / Smashing Magazine / Inspirdology / Well Medicated (posters from poland) / Design Feedr / Smashing Magazine : Asian movie posters

Random Articles: How to Mend your broken heart / Recovery from a broken heart

Images: Here are some sample images – I saved a bunch in an “inspiration” folder for reference.

inspiration

STEP 02: SKETCH

I don’t have my sketches handy, but I believe that all designers MUST spend time with a pencil and paper doing thumbnail sketches of their ideas before they go to a computer!

STEP 03: DRAW IMG

I wanted the poster to have an artistic, hand-drawn vibe and because I don’t have a wacom pad yet :( I have to do it the old fashion way. I think it’s more fun anyway! I draw on art vellum (transparency paper) so I can do many different versions and lay them over each other to decide how I want the final image to look. I did one version in outline only, and then I did a version with texture.

draw

STEP 04: We go to the computer

livetraceI scanned my line drawings into the computer.

PHOTOSHOP: select > color range > choose white

This separated the black img out, but it still had a slight white border. You can continue selecting pixels to get ONLY the black, but I prefer to take it into AI.

ILLUSTRATOR: Bring in the PSD file and click object > live trace

You can play with the options to get a clean vector img. I love vector images and Illustrator files. :)

STEP 05: Color and Texture

I created a new layer in Photoshop and added some red behind the hearts and some brown behind the trees. I also found a great underground texture from CGTextures.com. This is a great source for free high-res images. I also found these great texture brush downloads from Brusheezy.com to add some texture. I created different layers with different opacity to give it that rough, texture on the edges.

colorandtexture

Download these brushes: urban decay / cracks / oil stainsbrushes

STEP 06: Version 2: New Texture and highlight

After creating version 1, I decided to step back & go more dramatic. I added some texture for the hillside, taken from an actual photo of the forest. Then I drew a ground line and scanned it in. I also made more grunge layers in black. I finished it off with a radial gradient the came over the hill, but behind the trees to add the the mystery. Simple shadows on the ground add depth to the image.

textureandhighlight

STEP 07: TEXT

text21We all know that fonts play a large part in the emotion and mood that the poster conveys. I spent some time on dafont.com downloading some sweet new fonts. I didn’t want to over-design, so I spent time with the basic helvetica, futura and garamond as well. These are are some of my favorites. Ultimately it’s up to the client.

postertext1

STEP 08: POSTER COMPLETE!

Our final image turned out like this and Diliana was very happy with the outcome!

mendedposter_final1Now I have to create a flyer, poster with more info and website that incorporate this art. I also have to think about the difference in screen and printing colors. At home this poster is fairly dark, but on my screen at work it’s almost all black. Plus, different printers have different inks and if I print this with a company like CalCopy, I need to make sure I like the way they print out! (Not too dark) I’ll keep you updated on all of the promotional material. If you have any other questions about any of the steps, or how I created this image, feel free to ask! This movie is currently being edited, but I’ll let you know when it’s complete and where you can go see it. :)

Distressing Type in Illustrator

Published September 25, 2008 Graphic Design , Tutorials 13 Comments
Tags: , , ,

When I see something cool online I’m always telling Mel to write a blog about this, make a shirt look like that, or asking her to find different tutorials that are awesome (that I’m too lazy to find).  She saved the day again today! I’ve been trying to find out an easy way in illustrator to distress type without bringing it into Photoshop. She sent me a link to this tutorial on DzyneO about distressing type that really helped my project get finalized.  Check it out:

Step 1. Type something that you’d like to distress. Open the brushes palette

Step 2. With the pen or the brush tool draw lines over your text in a different color (this color won’t be seen at the end, it helps with separation of images) until you receive the desired effect. Apply different stroke sizes to add variation in your design.

Step 3. Outline the text and group. (Type>Create Outlines) (ctrl+g)

Step 4. Select all strokes created and go to Object>Expand Appearance

Step 5. Open the Pathfinder tool and select everything (ctrl+a). In the pathfinder palette click on merge. Make sure that the stroke color is selected in the fill color. Go to the toolbar and click Select>Same>Fill Color and delete the selection. (I promise it works, it took me a few trys to figure it out, so don’t give up)

Step 6. Your Final Image!

I’m working on some t-shirts for our favorite local singer/songwriter Zank. Which design do you like? I can’t decide.

Hope this helps!

-michelle

Make a Mesh with Illustrator

Published September 9, 2008 Graphic Design , Tutorials 2 Comments
Tags: , , , ,

So I was randomly searching for some mesh textures online and found this great blog post called, “Illustrator Make with Mesh” on Veerle’s blog. There are all of these little tricks about illustrator I never learned and Veerle has a ton of tutorials for the eager designer.

First:

#1. Create 4 lines using the rectangle tool

#2 Add color, reference Kuler for some killer swatch options. I used “Greenpeace Greenlife”

#3 Make a Mesh: select all lines and click Object> envelope. I used 4 columns and 2 rows. Pull and twist the anchor points with the Direct Selection Tool (A).

Before (left) After (right)

#4 Overlay Color Effect: I duplicated the layer with the mesh on top of my original mesh (ctrl+f, for a direct paste on top). Click the layer target circle icon in the Layers palette and change the layer mode to Overlay in the Transparency palette. Move the overlay layer until you reach desired effect.

#5 Play around with different effects. I used the warp option and added text by drawing a line with the pen tool and selected the Type on a Path tool to create curved text.

To see more detailed instructions, visit Veerle and all of her tutorials.

-michelle

How To: prep images for screen printing

Published August 27, 2008 Art , Graphic Design , Tutorials 6 Comments
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Great for anyone interested in the screen-printing business and especially our Collar Free designers.

1. Always use your original photograph or artwork (it’s not cool to steal other people’s work)
2. Don’t place rasterized images in your illustrator files; work in photoshop or illustrator
3. If using images, please make sure they are at least 300 dpi.

Lets start with photoshop:

Option 1: Posterize

We took a picture of Mel in color and changed the setting to grayscale (image>mode>grayscale)

Then we put a halftone filter on it (filter>sketch>halftone pattern)

This is NOT a printable image

Color separation on a halftone image is a difficult and long process, but we can limit the number of colors using the posterize effect. (image>adjustments>posterize).

This is a printable image

This is also another way to posterize:

(image>adjustments>channel mixer: to adjust the color) then (image>adjustment>posterize) no more than 4 levels

Option 2: Threshold

Threshold is an easy and fun way to make your images print ready (image>adjustments>threshold). You can easily change and select color by using the color range tool (select>color range). Once you are in that mode use the eyedropper to select the desired color and fill in with a brush, paintbucket or cut and copy to new layer.

Option 3: Livetrace (Illustrator)

Import the photo into Illustrator. (object>live trace>tracing options).

These are the levels used here. Don’t use more than 6 colors. Play, experiment and surprise us with your design.

Please Note:

Try and separate your colors into separate layers. Use the color range tool (select>color range). It’s amazing! Use the eyedropper to make your selection by color. Cut (ctrl x) and paste (ctrl v) each color into a new layer. This process is not required but we want to inform you about the prep work we do before we send the art out for production. These techniques will give you a better understanding of the screen-printing industry and makes our job more efficient.

We know everyone is not familiar working with screen-printing and we will be posting more about this industry next week. If this helped and you would like to see more tutorials in the future give us a holla or comment back.  If you have specific questions email us at: mel@collarfree.com or michelle@collarfree.com We’re here to help :)

-mel & michelle

wacom scroll tutorial

Published August 21, 2008 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: , ,

Check out this time lapse video of how to draw a tattered old-world scroll that I found on Vimeo. I got my wacom tablet two days ago and can’t wait to try it on my own; once I figure out how to use the thing:)

You start with this:

And end with this! Pretty sick huh?

Nice work Jeff of Go Media.
I’ll keep you guys posted with my latest wacom drawings.

-michelle

Twitter: @dailydesignfix

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.