Photoshop/Illustrator/Other Tips & Tricks

RADA

I just got Adobe Creative Suite 2!

While I was graphic artist before becoming a computer n00b, I have very limited experience with software related graphics programs like Photoshop or Illustrator.

So I thought a Sticky thread to start condensing some graphics knowledge would be handy, even if it just helps a n00b like me make up a new Sig or 2...

This thread is not limited to just Adobe products. If you use something else, and have a kick-a** trick/tip, please post it.

To help sort out what is posted, please make the 1st line in the post what software & version you're posting on.. Something like this:

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CS2



Then add your tip or trick a few lines below. This will make it easier to search through the thread.

Thanks!

RADA


*****EDIT****************

Those of you wanting assistance with how to do something, post here too...

Sledgehammer70

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CS2: How to Make a Banner or Sig show that little extra Umpff....



I myself work within PS daily I run a few web sites and do graphic art for a living. But I know one thing that took me awhile to figure out was how to add some of those cool glassy looking buttons, or how to make a banner or sig jump off the screen. So here is a quick way to make your sig/ banner stand out.

Objective: make a 423 x 60 pixel banner that well represents the advertisement at hand.

Now this isn't an advanced Tip/ or skill but it is a quick way to make something okay look better.

Step 1: Create your new project

Click on you PS CS2 Icon to open your program, than click File -> New & type in the following info:



Now that we have our new file open and ready to go it is time to add the basics to create our new banner. So i have added a background image to our project. This image just so happens to be a .jpg I got off EAGames website.



Now that we have our Background image in place we can add our advertisement or text. Which in this case is www.bfmetournaments.com so I selected my LOTR font called RINGM___.TTF "which is provided in the zip file" and inserted my text. I went ahead and added a quick layer background shadow on the text and have this as my basic image.



Now thinking to myself I want to make this stand out a bit, give it a 3D type of interface. So first thought is a quick boarder. To do this is very easy. create a new layer

[IMG]http://www.bfmetournaments.com/Short_media_images/New_layer_for Boarder.jpg[/IMG]

and make a 2 Pixel box. Select you Rectangle Marquee Tool as shown below and drag it just 2 pixels away from the boarder... it might be more or less but it is more of an eye thing, I just say make it the size of your choice. You can see the size of mine below.



Now you can choose many colors to make you boarder but I like to stick with a color theme from the background so they don't clash to much, so I just choose the Eye Dropper Tool and got a light color from the background image. Now I choose the Brush Tool and applied the color to the boarder. Before I did this I have to go to the tool bar and click Select & than Inverse as we only want to paint the boarder not the middle

So now that we have a boarder we need to add some spunk to it, so lets adjust the Layer Style.



Now I choose to just use the Bevel & Emboss tool, but take in mind there are a ton of ways to adjust things but I just minorly changed things to meet my needs for this quick project.



Now once I finished adjusting what I thought was perfect I headed over to the text and did the same thing, I added the Bevel & Emboss feature along with keeping the drop shadow. Once I finished adjusting the settings to my liking I ended up with this.



I hope this counts as a quick tip or a guide, and I hope it was useful for you.

Here is the zip file containing the PSD, Font and Background Image file

RADA

Sledgehammer70 wrote:

I hope this counts as a quick tip or a guide, and I hope it was useful for you.

Hammer,

That is exactly what I was thinking of for this thread! Nice Job! Thanks!!


..keep them coming folks!!

Trumandrummer

awsome ill creat some tutorials. well i use photoshop cs2, but they are pretty similar

Trumandrummer

Ok this is my first tutorial so im sorry if its confusing.

In this tutorial im going to show how to make cool/custom borders for "sigs"

I have just recently cleaned out all the pictures off my computer, so...... most of my sigs that i had with custom borders are gone. but heres one that i had uploaded and had on a gaming forum


i also made this one rain, maybe ill make a tutorial on that some other time:tongue2:

---

1. Ok, start out by opening a sig or picture that you want to add a border to.

I just opened a black picture just for this tutorial so dont mind that





2. Next you need to duplicate that layer or picture........... go to Layer > duplicate layer (on the top menus next to file)



3. Now you want to use the paint bucket tool and fill the new duplicated layer in with the color that you want your border to be (in this case i just used grey)




4. Now you need to use the polygonal laso tool



and make a border, or any design you want and connect it from where you started and press "backspace, or delete"


and then you should see your old image and the border (in this case it shows my black image)



5. now you want to go to the blending options (shown how below)


and put in these settings (or use your own, and be creative )



should look something like this (with your image of course)



6. Now you can add stuff to it by using the rectengle or eliptical marque tool (shown below)







AND HERE IS MY FINISHED 5 MINUTE BORDER

primesuspect

Those are awesome tutorials, trumandrummer and Sledge

Thanks, you guys! keep it up!

RADA

primesuspect wrote:

Those are awesome tutorials, trumandrummer and Sledge

Thanks, you guys! keep it up!

Agree, these are GREAT guys, MORE PLEASE!!


OK, I know there are a bunch of you out there with some tips you can share, divide 'em, don't hide 'em!!

gabe

Trumanddrummer, can you give us a tutorial on how you made that music mouseover in your sig?

Trumandrummer

yes i can make a tutorial for that, but its not photoshop.......... its macromedia flash mx 2004.............

Trumandrummer

Even though nobody really views this thread,I think im gonna post some more tutorials soon, because I love photoshop and i got so many good tutorials.


Im also planning on getting The new CS3

NLichtman

This one was a pain in my rear for a long time, nobody ever really told me how it was done, so I figured it out all by my lonesome. Lucky for you I know how to make a .gif file:bigggrin: By the way, I'm using Photoshop 7.0 and ImageReady7.0.

You can apply this principle to anything. Although, I am just going to make it an easy one.

1. Open up Photoshop and make a new image we'll say 100x100 pixels, name it New Avatar, set the resolution to 72, and set the mode to RGB Color.

2. Use the paintbrush to color the background black.

3. Make a new layer and color it red.

NLichtman

4. Now it's time to hop over to ImageReady to start the animation process. This is done by going to the File menu and going down to Jump To and selecting ImageReady.

5. After ImageReady is done loading up, go to the Animation bar and click the Submenu arrow and go down to Make New Frames from Layers. This will do literally as the command says it will.

6. Adjust your Time- for this tutorial, I used .5 seconds- and whether or not you want the images to fluctuate once, twice, forever (I used this one too), any other number of times.

NLichtman

7. Finally we're getting to the end, next you Save Optimized As... a .gif file in ImageReady and there you have it. All done! That's it... Now you have your very own Black and Red Blinking Avatar! Go Nuts!

ze_merovingian

:::sweet:::

RWB

How about requests... ask and you shall receive....

Nomad

This is something I found to be helpful when I was trying to remake a the cap of a pill bottle. The text around the top that says "Push down & turn" needed to be in a circle, but not distorted. The warp function for text always distorts the text. Making it fat, short, tall, bold, whatever. This way, you can transform your text on to any shape you can make, with it merely following the path without distortion.

When you go to the shape toolbar, you need to click paths.



Drag your shape onto the document you're working on and select the type tool. When you move the type cursor over the circle, you'll see the baseline change to an angle. Click, then type your text and it will maintain its original proportions and follow the rounds path.

mime92

nice short/quick tutorials..i use photoshop cs5 btw..>.< :P

mime92

Nomad wrote:

This is something I found to be helpful when I was trying to remake a the cap of a pill bottle. The text around the top that says "Push down & turn" needed to be in a circle, but not distorted. The warp function for text always distorts the text. Making it fat, short, tall, bold, whatever. This way, you can transform your text on to any shape you can make, with it merely following the path without distortion.

When you go to the shape toolbar, you need to click paths.

Drag your shape onto the document you're working on and select the type tool. When you move the type cursor over the circle, you'll see the baseline change to an angle. Click, then type your text and it will maintain its original proportions and follow the rounds path.

thanks so much..i really needed that!!:D