Final Image

This is the final image that we’ll be creating.

Step 1

Download this image http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1104824

Don’t think you’ve already made it as we will be tracing over the image!

Open the image in Photoshop and re-size it to what you want. I re-sized mine to 1800 px by 2546 px.

I lowered the opacity of the penguin image to 50% as it’s much easier to see your paths and curves your creating.
To do this, simply duplicate the layer, delete the bottom, original layer and then set the opacity to 50%.

Step 2

Create a new layer, name it ‘Body’ and select the Pen Tool (the shortcut for the Pen Tool is ‘P’).

Make sure that Paths are selected.

Step 3

To start with we will work on the outline of the body.

Left click on the very top of the head. A small square box will show. This is called an anchor point. It’s the beginning of the path.

For larger areas I like to create larger lines as I feel it creates a smoother curve rather than creating lots of anchor points, but, if you want, you can create smaller lines and use more anchor points. Try both methods and see which works best for you.

When you come to do smaller and more detailed areas, e.g. the foot, you will have to create smaller lines and curves.

Step 4

Click (and hold) on the start of the arm.

Now drag your mouse down and you will notice that the line will bend.

Drag and release your mouse button when the line curves round and fits round the edge of the head.

If a line isn’t as good as what you want it to be, no problem, the Pen Tool is very forgiving.

One option is to delete the last anchor point you made. To do this, press Delete. This will delete the last anchor point. After you’ve deleted an anchor point you must remember to click on the last anchor point you made or else it will create a new sub-path.

You can also edit the angle of the line by choosing the convert point tool. When you created the curve you probably noticed these two lines appear. These are called guide/direction lines. They control the angle and length of the curve.

With the Pen Tool still selected, hold down the key ‘Alt’ (this is the shortcut key for the Convert Point Tool) and hover over the top direction line. (you’ll notice that your cursor won’t change until you hover over the ends of a direction line or an anchor point).

Now if you click and hold the top direction line you will be able to edit the curve and make any fine tuning to it.

The last way of editing paths is holding down the ‘Ctrl’ key. This enables you to move anchor points and direction lines and again make any edits to your lines and curves.

If you want, play about with a few lines to get to grip with what you can do.

Step 5

The bottom direction line will be long and like this, if you have not edited it.

If you try to continue and click on the outline of the arm with the Pen Tool, the line will not go where you want it to!
This is because the direction line is large and creates a large curve (basically a long direction line = a long curve, a short direction line = a short curve!).

Hold down the ‘Alt’ key, click and drag the bottom end of the direction line upwards so it sits reasonably close
to the anchor point and follows the direction of the arm.

Now you should be able to draw around the arm using these different methods to edit the line/curves.

Here’s what mine looks like.

Following the information in Step 3 to 5 you should now be able to draw around the whole body.

Remember,

Keep hold of your mouse and drag in a direction to curve the line
Long direction lines = long curves
Short direction lines = short curves
If you delete an anchor point, click on the last one you created
Use the convert point tool to shorten/lengthen the direction lines
Zoom into the areas that are quite detailed and need small curves and lines
It does not matter if your lines are not perfectly traced around the edges
Take your time!

Step 6

As you finish the right arm you’ll be able to click on the 1st anchor point you made. This will close and finish the path.

Your image should look similar to this.

Now change your foreground colour to black.

Now right click (with the Pen Tool still selected) and this box will appear.

Click on ‘Fill Path’ and use these settings.

The outline of the Pen Tool will be around the body so press delete to get rid of this.

Your image should now look like this.

Step 7

Click the small eye symbol next to the Body layer to hide that layer.

Create a new layer above the layer ‘Body’ and name it ‘Stomach’. Use the Pen Tool to draw around the outline of the white part of the body.

When you’ve finished and closed the path, set the foreground colour to white, right click and choose Fill Path. Click delete to get rid of the pen outline.

Now your image should look like this with the body layer showing.

Step 8

Create a new layer on top and name it ‘Left Eye’. Hide the other layers accept the original penguin image.

As the eye is a circle you can either create it with the ellipse tool,

or,

draw around the left eye with the Pen Tool and fill it with the colour Black.

After you’ve finished the left eye, duplicate the layer (Ctrl & J/Apple Option Key & J) and move it over to the other eye. Name this layer, ‘Right Eye’.

Here’s how the image is looking with all the layers visible.

Step 9

Create another layer on top and name it, ‘Beak’. Again hide the other layers so you can trace around the beak.

Use the Pen Tool to draw around the beak and set the foreground colour to #fbdf26. Fill the path and then press delete to get rid of the pen outline.

Step 10

Delete the background layer (the original penguin image) and make all your layers visible. I added a layer filled with the colour white at the bottom and cropped the image so the penguin was sat neatly in the centre.

Here’s the final image that we’ve created. I hope you’ve enjoyed the tutorial.

This tutorial will go through the steps of creating a custom Youtube background. It is an essential part of your channel as it will attract viewers and give them an idea of what your channel contains.

When you are following the tutorial it is quite a good idea to go to your Youtube page and frequently upload a JPG version of your PSD to check that everything is aligned and looking tidy. There’s nothing worse than finding something’s off slightly and you cannot go back to change it!

Final Image

As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:

Step 1

To start with open up your Internet browser and go to www.youtube.com. Login to your account, go to My Channel and select Themes and Colours. From here select the Grey Theme and save. Now logout, go back to your Channel Page and capture your channel page but none of the task/scroll bars or the bottom of your screen e.g. Mac Dock. Press cmd, Shift, 4 for Mac users to select the area precisely. For Windows users if you have Windows 7 you can use the Snipping Tool but if you don’t you will have to delete these bits out.

You will have to capture two images. One for the top of the page and then another picture for the bottom half.

Open up the screenshots in Photoshop. On the bottom half image press Cmd A or Ctrl A and then Cmd C/Ctrl C to copy it. Now paste the image into the top half image.

Go to Image, Canvas Size, select Pixels and enter 1800 into the Height box. This should give you lots of room to align both of these images. Move the top half of the Youtube page up to the top and then align the bottom half so it flows perfectly down the page. Remember to hold Shift whilst moving the images up and down else it will move sideways too. Once your done merge the layers together.

Step 2

Take the Eyedropper Tool and click onto the dark grey borders. Now with the Rectangular Marquee Tool create a square that goes around the video preview box area and fill it with the grey colour you just selected.

Select the Magic Wand tool and with a Tolerance of 2 click on the dark grey area. Now holding Shift click onto the bottom grey area.

Press Delete, deselect and then select the rest of the background and delete it also.

Now create a layer underneath and fill it with the colour black for now.

Step 3

OK, it’s time to start doing some design work at last! Create a new document with these settings.

Zoom in all the way, select the Brush Tool, put the size to 1 px and choose the colour black. Now hold shift and click and drag up and down a few times on the right hand side of the square. Then for the left hand side drag down once. It should look like this.

Go to Edit, Define Pattern and name it something like Stripe. You can now either close this document or save it in case you want to edit the pattern.

Back on the original document click on the Background layer twice to bring up the Layer Style Palette. Select and tick the box in Pattern Overlay. Click the down arrow in the Pattern box and your custom pattern will be in there.

For the Opacity enter 75, the Scale 180 and click OK.

Create a Group folder and name it Background. Put the Background layer into this and now create a new layer named Fade Out Side on top of the Background. Zoom out quite a bit and now select the Brush Tool with the colour Black. Select a 1000 px Brush with a softness of 0% and drag down (remember to hold Shift) the right hand side of this area, shown below.

Duplicate the layer and then go to Edit, Transform, Flip Horizontal and move the image over to the other side of the document so that the sharp black edge is directly running down the edge of the image.

Create a new layer in the Background group folder and name it Fade Out Bottom. Like with the sides using the same size Brush, colour and technique brush over from one side to the other.

Step 4

Create a new Group folder, name it Boxes and put the layer that contains the layout of the Youtube page into it.

So now it’s time to clean up the page and get the basics done to the layout so you can start to customize the page properly.
Grab your preferred selection tool and delete the Info, Favourites, Share etc piece of text.

Now we will create our own section boxes. To start with select show Guides and Rulers from the View menu. Drag out guides from both the vertical and horizontal rulers and place them around the boxes like so. This will help to make everything perfectly in line.

You will notice I did not place guides where the bottom boxes split for subscribers and comments. This is because these boxes will become far bigger when you have more subscribers and comments so it would then interfere with your design.

Create a new layer inside the Boxes group, above the layout image, name it Top and select the Rounded Rectangle Tool with a Radius of 3.
Zoom in and create a box around the top bar of the page. The paths will snap to the guides thus helping this process. Once the path is created choose the Eye Dropper tool and click onto the main background box. You can delete the path when you have finished the box.

Create a new layer for each box for the top section and repeat the previous process. You will notice there is a small triangle on top of the video information box. Grab the Pen Tool, create a path around the small shape and fill it with the same colour your using.
Your layout should be taking shape now.

Step 5

Now create another layer and another box for the small logo area on the bottom half of the layout. Keep creating new layers for each box and now drag out another box but instead of ending the box where it cuts off keep on dragging down and let go when it’s near the end of the document. This applies to the box beside it. This is how my image and layer palette looks.

You can now turn off the layer that had the image of the Youtube layout.

With the basic layout complete and the page ready to be customized feel free to vary these next steps and come up with your own ideas to make your page unique.

Step 6

Create a new layer on top of everything and pick the Brush tool, 1px and the colour #ffae00. Make a small line (hold shift) and let go. Now duplicate the layer and move the new line close to the other one and repeat this process. After a couple of times merge the layers and then duplicate them as it will be quicker. Move the lines so they are in between the top and bottom section. This is how mines looking like.

Move your lines to the left so there are around 6 small lines jutting out either side from the section boxes. If you need to create more simply duplicate the layer and then delete a section you don’t need. Remember to merge the layers!

Duplicate the layer again and transform its so running vertical. Move it over to the left and place it near the horizontal line. Delete a large section of the line so only a small amount remains for the text that we will put in next to it in the next step.

Repeat this for the right hand side.

Create a group folder and clean up the layers. Name the main line layer Lines, the left side,
Left Lines and the right side, Right Lines.

Turn the Opacity of the Group folder for the lines to 70%.

Step 7

Grab the text tool; find some space on your document, and type in your channel’s name. I used the font Haettenschweiler, size of 60pt and the colour #febc3e. Turn it anti clockwise 90 degrees and move it over to the left side where the lines meet.

Now create some more text that reads, Subscribe. Use the same settings. Rotate the text 90 degrees clockwise and move it to the other side in-between where the lines meet. You might need to edit the lines that run horizontal, as they might not be long enough/too long for the text. Simply grab a selection tool (I used the Rectangular Marquee Tool) and delete the required amount so the lines don’t go past where the text ends. If there’s not enough duplicate the lines layer, move it up or down then delete the bits you don’t need.

Create another Group folder named Text and put the two pieces of text inside it.

Step 8

We will now tweak the boxes colours and add some depth to them. Open the group folder that contains the Youtube boxes and proceed to decrease each of the layer’s lightness to -50 from the Hue/Saturation box.

Select one of the layers and go to the Layer Style. Use these settings and then copy them and paste them for each layer in this group. The left colour for the gradient is transparent and the right is Black.

Once done go to the Top Box layer and change the Angle and Scale shown in the next picture.

Step 9

Go back into the Background group and add a new layer called Shine just above the Background layer. Choose White for the foreground colour, grab the Pen Tool and draw a large curve that is similar to the picture below. Zooming out will help quite a bit, as it’ll be easier to curve the line.

Fill the selection with white, delete the path, set the layer style to overlay and the drop the opacity to 20%.

Now move the layer named Fade Out Bottom all the way to the top of the layer palette.

Step 10

This is the design finished. To put this onto your Youtube page go to File, Save For Web & Devices and put the quality to about 90. Now login to your Youtube account, click on My Channel and select Themes and Colours.

Click New Theme and use these settings. Where it says Background Image, click on browse and upload your JPG image.

Name your Theme and save it.

Congratulations, you have finished the tutorial! You can now add a lot more to the page if you like and design it so it is more suited to the genre of your videos.

And We’re Done!

You can view the final outcome below. I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and would love to hear your feedback on the techniques and outcome:

As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:

Step 1

Download this image http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1190264 and open it up in Photoshop. Duplicate the layer and go to Filter, Sharpen, Sharpen.

Step 2

Copy and paste this image, http://www.sxc.hu/photo/838733 into your document and name the layer Lamp Post.
Go to Image, Adjustments, Desaturate and then select the Magic Wand. With a Tolerance of 70 click on the white around the lamp post. With the white selected click Delete and then set the Layer Style for this layer to Overlay.

Now go to Edit, Transform, Distort. Drag the top middle anchor point down a bit so the lamp post becomes slightly smaller and then drag the top right anchor point up slightly and then the bottom right anchor point downwards slightly.

Now go to Filter, Blur, Gaussian Blur and enter 0.5 in the box.

Step 3

Copy and paste these images into your document: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1065503, http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1082249, http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1085180 and name the layers, Seagull 1, Seagull 2 and Seagull 3.

Re-size each image so each Seagull is around the size of the top of the lamp post. With each image use whatever extraction technique you find best to delete the sky around the seagulls. Desaturate all the seagulls and then darken them up by going to Levels and dragging the middle slider to the right slightly. Finally for each seagull layer set the Layer Style to Overlay and move each image so it is just to the right of the top of the lamp post.
This is how mine looks. The Seagulls aren’t that visible but it just adds that extra little bit to the picture at the moment.

Step 4

Copy and paste this image into your document http://www.sxc.hu/photo/726333, name the layer Underground and re-size the image so it’s about 1 and a half times as big as the woman’s head. Set the Layer Style to Overlay and then go to Image, Adjustments, Levels and drag the middle slider to 0.35.

I then warped and distorted this image slightly (like the lamp post) to fit with the direction of the wall. Finally go to Filter, Blur, Blur.

This is how mine looks.

Step 5

Copy and paste this image below the Lamp Post layer and name it Laser Party.

Rotate the image so the bottom sits in line with the step.

Erase any parts of the image that overlaps onto the woman and then set the opacity of the layer to 30%.
There is a part in the wall that has a hole in it so just erase over this bit as well.

Step 6

Copy and paste this image http://www.sxc.hu/photo/772418 on top of the Laser Party layer and name it Hands.

Repeat the previous step where you placed the image running along the step and then enlarge the image so it fits the width of the page. Just like the previous step erase any parts of the image that overlaps onto the woman and then select a large, soft edged eraser and brush across the top part of the image to remove the hard edge. Finally set the Layer Style for this layer to Overlay.

This is how mine looks so far.

Step 7

Copy and paste this image http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1170575 into your document, name it Skull and move the layer just above the Hands layer.

Select the Magic Wand and enter 175 into the Tolerance box.

Click on the white background around the skull and press Delete. Now Desaturate this image, set the Layer Style to Overlay and press Ctrl/Apple and T and re – size the Skull so it is about the size of the person’s head and then place it right next to her. Like the other images I warped it slightly to fit the direction of the wall.

Step 8

Now go back to Layer 1 (the layer where you duplicated the background at the start), select the Pen Tool and make a selection of the woman and copy and paste her onto a new layer. Name the layer Woman and then move the image to the right and up slightly, set the Layer Style to Overlay and drop the opacity to 30%. Erase over the where the woman was originally so it leaves part of the new image to the right hand side.

Step 9

Now it’s time to add some text. As always I like to use the font Avant Garde LT Book but other fonts such as Helvetica, Arial or any others you really like will be just as ok.

Select the Text Tool and drag out a medium sized box. Make sure this layer is on top of all your other layers. Using the colour #a7a7a7 and size 13pt, I typed in –
‘The Underground Sound
@ The Freed Club
11pm Till Late
23rd August’.
I then changed the first line to a Bold setting, decreased the size of the rest of the text to 10pt and move the text to this location.

Now go to the Blending Options for this text layer. Tick Drop Shadow and then tick Gradient Overlay and use these settings.

Step 10

Create a new layer under the text layer and name it Gradient. Select the Gradient Tool and then go to the Gradient Editor. Use Black on the left hand side and set the opacity on the right hand side to 0%. Click OK and then tick the Reverse box and select the Radial Gradient at the top of the screen.

From the middle of your page drag upwards and stop when your mouse gets to about the orange line shown in the next picture.

Change the Layer Style to Overlay.

Step 11

Copy and paste this texture into your document http://www.sxc.hu/photo/144736 and place the layer on top of everything. Rotate the image 90 degrees clockwise and simply stretch it so it fits the size of your document. Now change the Layer Style to Overlay and set the opacity to 25%.

And We’re Done!

That’s the tutorial finished! I hope you’ve enjoyed it and learnt something useful.

Download Source File for this Tutorial

As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:

Step 1

Firstly download this image http://www.sxc.hu/photo/429996

Open up the image in Photoshop and go to Image, Image Size and enter 1600 into the Width box.

Duplicate this layer by pressing Ctrl/Apple and J.

Step 2

The car is slightly too light so go to Image, Adjustments and click on Levels. Drag the middle slider to 0.9 or enter 0.9 into the box.

Now create a new layer and select a large brush (something around 200 – 300px will do). Choose the colour black and then brush around the car.

Set this layer’s style to Soft Light. Your image should like this.

Step 3

Create a new layer and select the Brush Tool. Change the Hardness down to 0% and put the Brush size to 10px and then go to the Brush Palette and use these settings.

Now select the colour white and then select the Pen Tool and create a line something similar to this.

Now Right Click and select Stroke Path. Tick the Simulate Pressure, press OK and delete the path. I then went to the Layer Style menu for this layer and put a blue Outer Glow on the line.

Now it’s time for you to go wild! Repeat this step creating different lines around the car using various sizes of brushes, different vibrant colours and outer glows. Try changing a few settings of the scattering option in the Brush Palette to create different effects. Remember to create a new layer for each line you do.

After I had finished I grouped the layers and put them into a folder called ‘Lines Around Car’ and then changed the Layer Style of the folder to Screen.

This is how mine came out. I used 13 layers for my lines.

Step 4

Copy and paste this image into your document http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1106947 and name the layer Nebula.

Change the Layer Style to Screen and then select the Eraser Tool. Set the size to around 400px and erase around the edges so you leave the image in the middle.

Now press Ctrl/Apple and the letter T and transform it clockwise around 55 degrees and move it so it sits along side of the car.

Step 5

Copy and paste this image into your document http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1034138 and name the layer swirls.

Set the Layer Style to Soft Light and again select the eraser with a size of about 400px and erase around the edges. Set the opacity of this layer to 70% and move it so it sits alongside the car just like the last step.

Step 6

Add a new layer above the duplicated Background layer and name it Splatter.

Go to http://www.bittbox.com/freebies/free-hi-res-splatter-photoshop-brushes/ and download these awesome high – res brushes. Once their downloaded extract them and load them up in Photoshop. Choose the colour black and start using the brushes of different sizes around the side and back of the car. After you’ve finished this erase any bits that are on top of the car. This will leave ‘splatters’ around the car.

Step 7

Create a new layer above the Splatter layer and name it Lines. Select the Brush Tool, choose a 2px, soft edged Brush and then select the Colour White and open up the Brush Palette. Set the Spacing to 150%.

Now select the Pen Tool and create a small line at the back of car.

Right Click and select Stroke Path. Make sure Simulate Pressure is not ticked and click OK. Delete the path and your image should look like this.

Now create lots more small, different sized lines around the back of the car (you can create these lines on the same layer). For each line use a different colour. I found that pale colours worked better compared to vibrant ones. I then grabbed the Eraser Tool and like some of the previous steps erased any bits that went over the car.
This is how mine looks like so far.

Step 8

Create a new layer and name it Gradient 1. Select the Gradient Tool and use these settings. The left hand colour is #3d009c and the right hand colour is #ff6600.

Make sure Linear Gradient is selected.

Hold down Shift and drag your mouse from the left to the right. This is how your image should look like.

Change the Layer Style to Soft Light, then select the Pen Tool and select this area.

Right Click and choose Make Selection. Enter 5 in the Feather Radius box.

Press Delete and then Deselect the Selection. Your image should be looking like this.

Step 9

Create a new layer and name it Gradient 2. Select the Pen Tool and make a selection of this area. Make sure when draw your path it overlaps slightly on the other gradient. Enter 5 again in the Feather Radius box.

Select the Gradient Tool again and use these settings. The left colour is #ff6e02 and the right one is #ffff00.

Hold down Shift and drag your mouse from the middle of the page to the right. Change the Layer Style to Soft Light and then select the Eraser Tool. Using a relatively large brush erase most of this layer apart from this area that is selected in this next image.

Now duplicate this layer and move the image up slightly. Again duplicate the layer and move it up slightly. Now go to Image, Adjustments, Hue/Saturation and use these settings.

Finally duplicate this layer and again move the image up slightly. Again go to Image, Hue/Saturation and use these settings.

I put all these gradient layers into a folder called, Gradients!

Step 10

Create a new layer on top of everything and name it clouds. Press D on your keyboard to reset the colour palette and fill this layer with the colour black. Now go to your colour palette and change the background colour to #1000de. Go to Filter, Render, Clouds and set the Layer Style to Soft Light and the opacity to 80%.

I then added a bit of text reading Street Tuner with my favourite font, Avant Garde LT Extra Light with a Layer Style of Pin Light and to finish off added a 15px border around the image and dropped the opacity of that layer to 90%.

That’s the tutorial finished! I hope you’ve enjoyed it and would love to read your comments on it.

And We’re Done!

That’s the tutorial finished! I hope you’ve enjoyed it and learnt something useful from this.

If you want to view the full sized final image, then click here:

FULL SIZED FINAL IMAGE.

Download Source File for this Tutorial

As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:

Images Used

The following images were used in the making of this tutorial:

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/85994
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1189018
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1063678
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/930455
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1139999

Step 1

Go to http://www.sxc.hu/photo/85994 and save the image to your computer. Now open up it up in Photoshop.

Go to Image and then Image Size and enter 1400 in the Width box.

Step 2

Duplicate the original layer and go to Image, Adjustments, Hue/Saturation and enter these settings.

Step 3

Go to http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1189018 and copy and paste this image into your document and name this layer fire. You’ll notice that it’s a tiny bit too big for your image so just re-size it so it fits your page.

Set the Layer Style for this layer to Screen. Now press Ctrl/Apple and T and then rotate and move the image so it looks like this. Make sure the start of the flame looks like it is coming out the mouth.

There are a couple of imperfections on the fire image so select the Eraser and use a small, soft edged brush to get rid of these areas.

Before:

After:

Step 4

Grab the Lasso Tool and select this area of the flames.

Now go to Edit, Transform, Warp. Warp the flames so they are in line with the nostrils. Now you can erase part of the flame so it looks like they are coming out the nose.

You might find when you warped it ‘drags’ away some of the flame from the rest of the picture so just select the clone stamp tool to get rid of any small black areas.

Again go to Edit, Transform, Warp and warp it so the flame looks like it’s rising slightly instead of going in a straight line.

Step 5

Now go to http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1063678, copy and paste that image into your document and name the layer Smoke. Again re-size it so it fits your page. Set the Layer Style for this layer to Screen and turn the smoke layer 90 degrees counter clockwise. Now move the smoke so the sharp edge on the right is slightly past the mouth.

With a soft edged brush erase out the smoke that is past the mouth so it looks like the smoke is coming out the mouth.

For the final part of this step go to Image, Adjustments and Desaturate the Smoke layer.

Step 6

Download this image http://www.sxc.hu/photo/930455 and name this layer Smoke 2.

Desaturate this layer and then place this image so the smoke trail starts at the mouth.

Change the layer style to Screen.

Step 7

Next copy and paste this image into your document http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1139999 and name it Spray. Again re-size it so it fits your page and set the Layer Style to Screen. Now we want to erase the big water droplet and the smaller one on the right.

Grab a large soft edged brush and erase those parts out. Put this image into the middle of the picture so the spray is coming out the mouth. I then used the Clone Stamp tool quickly with a large, soft edged brush to add a bit more spray.

This is how your image should be looking like so far.

Step 8

Add a new layer, name it Light and fill the image with the colour black. Go to Filter, Render and Lens Flare and use these settings.

Now erase most of this layer with a large, soft edged brush leaving only the brightest part of the flare.

Move the flare so it is in the mouth. This is what your image should look like.

Set the Layer Style to Colour Dodge.

Step 9

This step will add a little bit more ‘pazzaz’ to the fire and smoke.

Add another new layer, press D on your keyboard to reset your colour palette and then go to Filter, Render, Clouds. Now set the Layer Style for this layer to Overlay and grab a large, soft edged eraser and erase over the face.

Step 10

Again add a new layer on top of everything and select a large, soft edged brush and brush over this area of the face in the colour black.

Before:

After:

Step 11

On your background copy layer select the Lasso Tool and select this area of the face. This selection does not have to be neat and tidy!

Now copy and paste this selection (Ctrl/Apple + C to copy and then press Ctrl/Apple + V to paste) so you have a new layer with what you selected. Name this layer Heat Simmer and then go to Filter, Distort, Ripple and enter 150 in the dialog box. This will create a nice heat simmer effect.

And We’re Done!

That’s the tutorial finished! I hope you’ve enjoyed it and learnt something useful from this.

If you want to view the full sized final image, then click here:

FULL SIZED FINAL IMAGE.

Download Source File for this Tutorial

As we’ve now entered the Summer months I thought that it would be nice to take a look back at Spring, and design a poster celebrating the passing of spring into summer. As nature sees growth, many designers use this transition as inspiration for their own works.

This is the image that we will be creating in this tutorial. You can click on the image below to view the full-sized version:

Step 1

Open up a new document sized 1200 pixels wide and 800 high. Create a new layer and use a Radial Gradient Fill with these settings. For the left colour enter #d6de00 and for the right enter #ff6767.

Drag your mouse downwards from the centre of the picture so it goes off the canvas by a couple of centimetres. Let go and your picture should look like this.

Step 2

Now we will add some text in the middle of the picture. I’m using the font Broadway at 48pt but feel free to use a font of your own choice.

Now duplicate this text layer two times and put these layers behind your original text layer.

Move ‘Spring Copy 1’ to the left and upwards slightly and move ‘Spring Copy 2’ to the left and upwards of ‘Spring Copy 1’. Set the opacity of ‘Spring Copy 1’ to 60% and set the opacity of ‘Spring Copy 2’ to 20%.

The text should be looking like this.

Step 3

Now I will show you how to create a custom line around your text.

Click on the original text layer and then click on, ‘Create Work Path’. This will create a path around your text.

Press ‘D’ on your keyboard to reset your colours. Now create a new layer, name it ‘Line’, choose the Brush Tool, select the size 3px and 100% hardness and open up the Brush Settings. Use these settings.

Now with the Pen Tool selected, right click on the picture and choose ‘Stroke Path’.

Now you can delete the path around the text or create a Vector Mask with it in case you need it again.

After following this Step your lines around your text should be looking like this.

If you do not want to create a perfect line around the text you can select the Pen Tool and roughly go around the edges of the letters and the stroke the path. This will give a slightly different effect.

Step 4

It’s looking a little bare at the moment so it’s time to get some pictures!

Go to http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1173915 and download the image. Re-size the image so it’s just slightly bigger than the text.

Now we need to get rid of the white background which accompanies the leaf. You can use whatever selection method you prefer but I used the Magic Wand with a Tolerance setting of 80. Now move the leaf to the bottom left of the letter ‘S’ and rotate it round so the stem points inside the letter. I reduced the size of the leaf a bit more and then duplicated the layer and placed it on the top right of the letter ‘G’.

This is how my image looks like so far.

Step 5

Download this image http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1174899 and place it onto your picture.

Now got to ‘Edit’, ‘Free Transform’ and enter 60 into the width and height box.

Now we need to remove the blue background with the flower. I used the Magic Wand again with a Tolerance of 80 and this did the job pretty well. It doesn’t matter if your selection isn’t amazing as in a few moments time we will be blurring the image.

With the blue background deleted duplicate the layer and then go to ‘Edit’, ‘Transform’ and click ‘Flip Vertical’. Move this new layer so the flower looks like a circle and put it in the middle of the picture.

Merge the two layers that contain each half of the flower and put this layer below everything apart from the layer where you applied the Gradient Fill.

Now go to ‘Filter’, ‘Blur’, ‘Radial Blur’ and apply these settings.

Reduce the layer’s opacity to 20%.

This is how your image should be looking so far.

Step 6

Download this image http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1175425 and resize it so it fits the image.

Re-name the layer ‘Sky’ and move the layer in between the Gradient and the Flower layer.

Set this layer’s style to ‘Soft Light’ and reduce the opacity of the layer to 75%.

Step 7

Download this image http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1161439 and name the layer ‘Seagulls’. Now go to ‘Select’ and click on ‘Colour Range’. With a Fuzziness setting of 100, click on the sky with the Eyedropper Tool that is automatically selected when you enter Colour Range.

Now click ‘OK’ and the sky will now be selected. Click ‘Delete’ and then deselect the selection. There might be a little bit of sky still showing around the edges so just get the Eraser and go around the image to get rid of any bits. Press Ctrl or the Apple Key and the letter ‘T’ and then enter 45 in the Height and Width boxes.

Now select the Burn Tool, then choose ‘Highlights’ and set the Exposure to 100%. Set the Brush to 400px and put the hardness down to 0%.

Click, hold and drag over the seagulls a couple of times and you will notice they will get slightly darker. Now move the seagulls so they are just above the letter ‘P’.

Step 8

Now we are going to add some grass on top of the text. Create a new layer just under the layer ‘Seagulls’, name it ‘Grass’, select the Brush Tool and right click (or Ctrl and click for some Mac users) on the picture to bring up this dialog box.

Click the small arrow and then click on ‘Faux Finish Brushes’ to load them up.

Now select this Brush.

Now go to the Brush Palette and use these settings.

Now we’re going to create a grassy effect on top of the text. Using different colours and different sizes you should be able to create a cool effect. I stared off using this colour, #208202 and the size 20px for the Brush. This is how a part of my image looks like after doing this step.

Step 9

Create a new layer under ‘Grass’ and name it ‘Soil’. We will use the same Brush but this time in the Brush Settings put the ‘Angle Jitter’ up to a 100%.

Using the colour #432507 and a Brush size of 15px move your cursor under the areas of grass to create a soil effect. This is my how my image looks so far.

Step 10

Download this image, http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1164574 and then enter Ctrl or the Apple Key and ‘T’ and enter 15 in the Height and Width boxes. Now go to ‘Edit’, ‘Transform’ and click ‘Rotate 90° Clockwise’. Position the layer so it is just under the letter ‘P’. It looks a bit odd sat there at the moment so now go to the Layer Styles and choose ‘Multiply’.

After following this Step you image should be looking a little something like this.

Now we will download a couple more images and repeat the same techniques we just
applied.

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1164823

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1165413

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1158752

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1161898

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1156590

Again re-size these images, set the Layer Styles to ‘Multiply’ and place the images around the letters.

This is how my image looks like so far.

Step 11

Download these images.

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1175485

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1157696

With the first picture re-size it to a suitable size and select the Magic Wand. Using a Tolerance of 80, click on the sky and press ‘Delete’. Now make the image even smaller and put it onto the letter ‘R’. I then duplicated this layer and then flipped it horizontally by going to ‘Edit’, ‘Transform’, ‘Flip Horizontal’. Now re-size the daisy so it’s slightly smaller than the previous one next to it.

With the second image of a daisy you downloaded, re-size it so you can see it clearly and again use the Magic Wand with a Tolerance of 80 on the sky. Re-size the image down again but make it a big bigger than the other two daisies. Erase about half off the bottom of the stem and then place this daisy on top of the letter ‘G’.

Step 12

Create a new layer and name it ‘Line 1’. Select the Brush Tool and choose a 2px, soft edged Brush. Now open up the Brush Settings and use these settings.

Go to the Colour Palette and enter in #d70808 for the foreground colour. Now choose the Pen Tool (make sure that Paths are selected) and draw a curvy line on top of the text.

After you’ve done the Path Right click/Ctrl click and select ‘Stroke Path’. Make sure that Brush is selected and ‘Simulate Pressure’.

Delete the path and now erase parts of this layer so the line looks like it is weaving in and out of the lettering.

Now create a few more lines, each on a different layer consisting of different colours weaving in and out of the text.

After you’ve done that we’re now going to add a small glow to the lines. Right click on the ‘Line 1’ layer and select ‘Blending Options’. Tick the ‘Outer Glow’ and ‘Bevel and Emboss’ boxes. You don’t have to change the settings for the Bevel and Emboss setting but on the Outer Glow setting change the colour of the glow to a similar colour of the line. For this layer my line is red so I’ve used a red glow.

Add the ‘Outer Glow’ and ‘Bevel and Emboss’ styles to each of the line layers and change the glow colour so it’s similar to the line’s colour.

Step 13

Create a new layer on top of everything else and name it ‘Border’. Fill this layer with any colour you want and then set the ‘Fill’ down to 0%.

Right click on this layer; click ‘Blending Options’ and use these settings under ‘Stroke’.

Step 14

Download this texture http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1175647, put it on top of all your layers and re – name it ‘Texture 1’. Now re-size this layer so it fits over your image.

Now go to the opacity for this layer and set it to 8%.

Now download this texture http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1176171 and again, re-size it so it fits on top of your image. Put the opacity for this layer down to 3% and we’re done!

Here’s the final image that we’ve created. Click on the image to view the full-sized version:

I hope you’ve enjoyed the tutorial.

Download Source File for this Tutorial

In this article I’ll explain some of the different and powerful selection tools that are available in Photoshop. This guide is aimed at beginners, but can hopefully provide a few extra pointers for more advanced users. Personally I find it very easy to get stuck using only one selection tool, when it can be beneficial to experiment with several in your work.

The Marquee Tools:

The Marquee Tools consist of the Rectangle, Elliptical, Single Row and Single Column selection tools. These are the most basic selection tools in Photoshop. The keyboard shortcut for these tools is the letter ‘M’.

The Rectangle Tool

The Rectangle tool allows you to draw rectangles or squares. Click and drag on your page to draw a square. You can hold the key, ‘Shift’ whilst you are dragging out your cursor which will create a perfectly shaped square. You can also hold the key, ‘Alt’ which will enable you to draw from the centre of the square instead of the corner.

If you’d like to move the square’s position when you are dragging it out, hold down ‘Space’, move the square to your desired position and then release ‘Space’.

The Elliptical Tool

This tool allows you to draw circles & ellipses. Like the Rectangle Tool you are able to hold the keys, ‘Shift, Alt and Space’ to edit the circle when you are drawing it.

The Single Row & Single Column Tools

The Single Row Tool and the Single Column Tool allows you to select a single row of pixels across the image. All you do is click on the image and it will automatically draw a line the length of your document.

The Lasso Tools

The Lasso Tools consist of the Lasso, Polygonal and Magnetic selection tools. The shortcut for these tools is the letter, ‘L’.

Lasso Tool

The Lasso Tool is a quick way to select an area but doesn’t allow you to select it precisely. All you do is click, hold and draw to create a selection. After you release your click the selection completes itself.

Polygonal Lasso Tool

This tool lets you create more accurate lines as you create straight lines so you have more control of what you want to select. This tool is much more flexible compared to the Lasso Tool. To start using this Tool all you do is click onto your picture and then start clicking around your area you want to select. With this tool you do not have click and drag. To finish the selection you can click onto the 1st point where you started off or double click anywhere on the picture, as this will draw a straight line to the 1st point.

Magnetic Lasso Tool

This tool is different to the other Lasso Tools as it traces the area for you. I’ll be tracing this image from here http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1153097

This tool works a lot better with images like this one, as there are only two colours. It isn’t generally that precise when working with more detailed pictures, but it can be more effective when used with the Quick Mask (discussed later in this article) as you’re able to fine-tune the selection.

To start using this tool, click on to your document and start moving your mouse. You’ll notice that the line will start to trace around the image. To finish the selection click onto your 1st point where you clicked or double click and the line will join up to the 1st point automatically.

The Magic Wand

When you click onto your picture the Wand will select similar colours around it. Your Tolerance value at the top of the screen determines the range of colours that are selected. A low Tolerance value of 10 will select 10 darker and 10 lighter luminance levels from where you clicked. A high Tolerance value does the opposite. It will select a large range of colours.

Tolerance value of 10

Tolerance value of 100

Colour Range

The Colour Range method is a great method to use with photographic pieces. I’ve used this picture from http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1168546 to show you how to change the sky’s colour.

Go to ‘Select’ and then click Colour Range and this dialog box will appear.

Here you can add and remove colours you would like to select. The Fuzziness bar is a bit like the Magic Wand’s tolerance setting. The higher you set the value, the amount of colours selected increases and the lower you set the value the amount of colours selected decreases. With the dialog box open you’ll notice that when you hover over your canvas the eyedropper tool will be selected. I clicked onto the sky and then set the fuzziness value to 82. All the sky should be the colour white and the sign and building will be the colour black. The colour white indicates what is going to be selected.

Now you can click OK and the marching ants will be around the sky which will enable you do whatever you want with that selected area.

The Pen Tool

The Pen Tool is my favourite tool for selecting areas of a picture. I find it very useful for selecting tricky areas and just generally selecting anything.

If you’d like the picture I am using you can get it here http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1168742

To use the Pen Tool as a selection method all you do is click around the area you want to select, right click and click on the option, ‘Make Selection’.

This box will then show.

You’ll notice that there is an option to set the feather radius amount. The lower the value, the sharper the edges and the higher the value, the softer the edges. Try feathering the selection on the value 1 and then go back and enter 30. After clicking OK in this box I copied and pasted the selection and turned off the original layer. This is how mine looks.

Feathered with the value 1

Feathered with the value 30

Quick Mask

This method is quite useful as it gives you quite a bit of control on what you want to select. The shortcut to enter the Quick Mask mode is, ‘Q’ or you can click here to enter this mode.

When you enter Quick Mask mode the colour palette should change automatically. Black should be the foreground colour and white should be the background colour (if for any some reason it isn’t, press ‘D’ on your keyboard to reset the colours). In this mode you use the Brush Tool to produce a selection area. You will notice that when you start using the Brush Tool with the colour black, it will ‘paint’ the colour red. Don’t worry, this is meant to happen! Painting with this colour adds to the selection. If you swap the colours round by clicking the two small arrows next to the colours and start painting with the colour white, this will erase parts of the mask. You can change the sizes and hardness’ of the brushes in the Quick Mask mode. This enables you to select the edges of area neatly and precisely. To exit the Quick Mask mode press ‘Q’ or click on the Quick Mask button.

After exiting Quick Mask mode you will then have the ‘marching ants’ around the area you didn’t paint red. This enables you to edit this area or invert the selection so you can edit the area you painted red.

Layer Mask

A Layer Mask is a useful, non-destructive way of editing. They allow you to go back and edit the selection you made to a layer. It also saves you from being very annoyed if you erase a certain part of a layer and then decide later on that you want it!

To create a layer mask make a selection of what you would like to keep and click the ‘Add Layer Mask’ button.

Your selected area has been converted into a layer mask. A small thumbnail is now linked to your original layer.

To edit the layer mask click on the layer mask’s thumbnail. Now you can either paint in black or white to edit the layer. Painting in the colour black will mask the pixels in the original layer and painting in the colour white will reveal the pixels in the original layer.

If you remember a few weeks ago I ran a User Poll to see what kinds of basic tutorials you guys wanted to see. Basic text/typography tutorials were overwhelmingly the most popular request.

This tutorial teaches you how to create a super professional text effect, and carefully walks you through each step in great detail. This tutorial is perfect for beginners, and also teaches an effect that even professionals can utilize.

Final Image

This is the final image that we will be creating in this tutorial.

Step 1

Open up new document sized 1400 px by 1000 px. Create a new layer and fill it with black.

Step 2

Grab the text tool and drag the box out to fit your document.

Choose a font (here I’m using Arial) and use the size 3pt. I used #323131 for the colour of the text.

Type in whatever you want and then copy and paste that word (remember there should be a space in between each word). After you’ve copied and pasted a few words, highlight those and copy and paste that block as it will be much quicker!

Make sure your text is running down the page neatly like so.

Step 3

With the text layer selected, go to Edit, Transform, Rotate and enter -25 degress here.

You will have black bits round the edges like mine so just grab the corners of the text layer and enlarge it. You might also have to add more words to your text layer if the words do not fill the page.

Step 4

Create a new text layer using the colour white and size 72pt. Write in your word(s) and rotate this layer -25 degress.

Step 5

Now go to the layer styles for this layer and set it as soft light.

Now your picture should look something like this.

(Picture – Zoomed Out)

(Picture – Zoomed In)

Step 6

Duplicate this layer and set the opacity as 45% to ‘liven’ up the text slightly. Make sure that the layer style stays as soft light.

Now go to Layer, New Fill Layer, Gradient. This box will then pop up. Click OK.

Now enter these settings. The bottom slider on the left is black and the one to the right is white.

Your picture should now look like this.

Step 7

Now go to the layer styles for your gradient layer and set this layer to soft light.

Thats the tutorial finished! I hope you’ve enjoyed it and learnt something useful from this.

Download Source File for this Tutorial