Saturday, January 30, 2010

How to create Glass Surface Water Drop Animation

Start by opening an image of a glass.

Create an ellipse using elliptical shape tool.

Reduce the opacity to 20%.

Ctrl+Click the layer thumbnail to get the selection. From select menu apply modify>>contract. Contract the selection by 1 pixels. Create a new layer and apply a black to white gradient in linear mode.

Change the layer mode to screen.

Merge both the layers. Press Ctrl+T. Right click the layer and select warp. Adjust nodes to get the shape as shown.

Double click the layer to open layer style window. Apply layer style with the settings shown.

Change the layer mode to screen and reduce the opacity to 51%.

Create several duplicates of the drop. Press Ctrl+T and distort. Place as shown in the image below.

Open animation window. For the first frame hide all thedrop layers except the top drop layer.

Duplicate frame and hide the first drop layer. Unhide the next drop layer. Similarly hide unhide the layers to create a falling drop effect.

For the last frame hide all the drop layers. Adjust delay durations as shown in the image below.

Press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S to save an optimized animated GIF.

source: smartphotoshop.com

Friday, January 29, 2010

How to create “Home Sweet Home” Graphic

Start by typing “home” using a bold font.

Double click the layer to open layer style window. Apply layer style with the settings shown.

Create a rectangle using rectangular shape tool. Press Ctrl+T. Right click the layer and select perspective. Adjust nodes to create a roof top.

Double click the layer to open layer style window. Apply layer style with the settings shown.

Create some horizontal and vertical lines using line tool. Fill the roof top with such lines to give an illusion of bricks.

Select and merge all the line layers. Double click the layer to open layer style window. Apply layer style with the settings shown.

Duplicate the layer and press Ctrl+F to reapply the filter.

Similarly create wall of the home.

Create a rectangle for the chimney using rectangular shape tool. Press Ctrl+T. Right click the layer and select distort. Adjust nodes to get the shape as shown. Create bricks over the chimney too.

Create a rectangle using rectangular shape tool and place it at the bottom.

Create two rectangles with different colors. Move these layers below all the layers in layer order in layer palette. Place them as shown.

Create triangular shape using polygon shape tool.

Double click the layer to open layer style window. Apply layer style with the settings shown.

Create some flower and leaf shapes using custom shape tool. Place them as shown.

Create a horizontal and vertical line and place it for the window. Using ellipse tool create a circular handle of the door.

Create an ellipse using elliptical shape tool. Fill it with blue color.

Double click the layer to open layer style window. Apply layer style with the settings shown.

Create a horizontal line using line tool.

Type sweet home over this line.

Fill the background with black color.

Select and merge all the layers except background layer. Double click the layer to open layer style window. Apply layer style with the settings shown.

Creating a Silver Alien Orb

1. Create a new document. Fill in the background with black. Then go to Filter > Render > Lense Flare. Use the 50-300mm Zoom. Repeat this four times in the locations indicated below.

2. Go to Filter > Artistic > Plastic Wrap. Use these settings below.

3. Resulting image below.

4. Go to Filter > Distort > Polar Coordinates. Be sure to go from rectangular to polar.

5. Now change the hue / saturation by going to Images > Adjustments > Hue / Saturation. Use the settings below. Be sure to note that we did NOT check the Colorize box.

6. Now go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness / Contrast. Change the settings until you get a similar image to that below. And when you are finished, you will have a VERY attractive silver orb.

7. But we know that silver is a cool color, there are other good looking orbs too. Below are other versions of the tutorial that use different colors and brightness / contrast settings. Look below.

8. Below is a fiery version. These variations go to show that you can get many different results from the same tutorial. All of them look amazing!