Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
ISSUE 16
Retro Chic | Add shadows to your art | Charles Darby interview | Create urban snow scenes | Get more out of Bridge | Aqua art with blending modes
Build a Bridge
HIS
T
IMA OCRKES
INC G
THILUDE ES
S D
IS O
FRESUESN
EC
D
MOVIE
MASTER
HOW TO
8-PAGE SPECIAL
RETRO CHIC
Recreate a myriad of classic film
photographic effects with Photoshop
ISSUE 16
ISSN 1748-7277
5.99
16
771748 727009
pages of professional
tips & essential stepby-step tutorials
ISS
UE
16
10/2/06 11:32:37
Cover
Cover image
This issues enigmatic cover image comes
courtesy of imageer Brianna Wettlaufer
and istockphoto.com. A superb example
of how digital technology and software
can be used to add authentic film effects
to digital photographs, you can find out
more about this type of imaging in Jason
Arbers Camera Effects masterclass
starting on page 44.
Imageer:
BRIANNA WETTLAUFER
A SUPERB
EXAMPLE OF HOW
SOFTWARE CAN BE
USED TO CREATE
FILM EFFECTS
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PEER PRESSURE
7 78
ISSUE #16
inside...
LETTERS
7 10
Your comments shared with fellow readers
INSIGHT
7 12
HELPDESK
12
14
16
18
7 82
THE COVER
RESOURCES
44
Books
Stock Art
Websites
Plug-ins
a r S
th nd n t CR
e sa o p IB
co v a E
ve e ge ...
rp s 2
ric off 0
e
Typography
SU
Tu B
7 87
THIS MONTHS CD
88
91
92
93
94
7 96
12 16
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62
TECHNIQUES
Faster, better, more How can you work smarter?
FEATURES
ONLINE PORTFOLIOS
MASTERCLASS: ABSTRACTS
ZIP IT UP
7 22
7 30
7 38
UNDERWATER LOVE
7 44
7 52
CONCEPT ART
Be the master of sci-fi with this workshop
INSIDER INFO
ADOBE BRIDGE PARTS THREE AND FOUR
42
62
68
72
74
78
84
DEPTH OF FIELD
Recreate focus effects using Gaussian Blur
SHADOWS
Light sources, contours and textures
PEER PRESSURE
Eye-catching images from fellow readers
TECHNICAL RUN-THROUGH
Discover the power of Camera Raw 3
Advanced Photoshop
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Letters
Mailbox
Send your emails to the Advanced Photoshop team at
advancedpshop@imagine-publishing.co.uk
SUBJECT: Positive vibes
FROM: Philip Jean-Pierre, America
Subject: Inspired!
FROM: Vincent MacTiernan
SUBJECT: Disc depression
FROM: Carol Fitzgerald
I am a first year graphic design student in Sydney,
Australia. Today (2nd Dec) I purchased the Oct issue
of your magazine ($15 AUD). I am running a Mac G5
with OSX. This is the first of your magazines that I
have purchased and probably the last. Your
magazine stated that on the discs it had stock photos
worth 1,200 pounds. I only managed to open two of
the photos. One of a ginger cat and one of a cow. Im
very disappointed by this state of affairs.
Editor replies:
Please return the disc to Cover Disc Returns, Imagine
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insight
Acidtwist
Theres no question about it. For Acidtwist, real name Tavish, being the son of a
sculptor and architect has had a profound impact on his own career path. Growing
up, I never questioned whether I would go into a creative field; it was a given, he says.
Now an established painter in his own right, the Montreal-based creative freelances
as an art director for print and interactive design and has also recently begun
directing videos.
A multi-disciplined artist, Acidtwists degree in Art History continues to be relevant
in many aspects of his working life. Learning about everything from Graeco-Roman
art to contemporary video installations gave me a great exposure to so many styles of
work and I still refer back to that constantly.
His illustration style is a canny mix of East meets West Acidtwist puts the
influence down to growing up in Canada, where popular culture was often imported:
If I was watching a television cartoon, chances are that it was from America or Japan,
though I didnt know that when I was a kid watching Scooby-Doo or AstroBoy. One of
the key motifs in his work is Lichen, a sensual, green-haired figure, who brings to
mind the almond-eyed splendour of anime and Jap pulp magazines. Characters that
go on to have lives outside their initial media appearances fascinate me, he says.
I have this personal goal of creating 100 different images of her.
As for technique, Acidtwist draws first in pencil, then paints over the line-art in
Photoshop. Perhaps most surprisingly, he prefers using a mouse to a tablet. Im just
used to painting like this, he says. Ive been using a mouse for ten years now and it
feels natural. I should probably think about getting a tablet pressure-sensitivity
would be great but I still like the way my hand rests on a mouse.
www.acidtwist.com/
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04.06
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insight
James Jean
I didnt know anything about illustration or art, for that
matter until I started art school. But when I first picked up a
paintbrush, I knew Id found my calling, says James Jean, former
alumni of the New York School of Visual Arts, now resident of
LA, where he counts DC Comics, TIME, Rolling Stone and
Atlantic Records, among his many prestigious clients. How did
he land the briefs?
I hit the pavement and walked right into the offices of DC
Comics. That was pretty much it, he says. Im notoriously
passive in all aspects of my life, so its been my great fortune
that my website does most of the work for me.
He puts the usefulness of Photoshop in context: For me, the
sketch stage is the most important. The essential structure of
the whole picture, the life-force of the drawing, originates in
the sketch. With some of my pieces, I take it to the halfway
point in terms of rendering and painting, and finish the rest
in Photoshop.
Hes a dedicated fan of Wacoms Intuos3 (Once Id tasted that
fruit, there was no going back, he says), but his view on Adobes
app is an interesting one.
I approach Photoshop as a printmaking tool, he explains,
using layers to build upon the original drawing. Even in
printmaking class, I would run a pencil drawing Id done in a
press under an etching plate to see what effect it would have, or
paint on top of monoprints. Photoshop is a natural extension of
that thinking. After applying basic colour, I use mostly layer
effects to achieve depth. I also scan in hand-painted textures to
develop the picture further. I do whatever it takes.
www.jamesjean.com
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insight
KIN-SANS BUSINESS TRIP: One from our Panoramic series. Id been seeing these
guys in my head for some time Japanese salary-men dressed as schoolgirls and had
some strange visions for what theyd be doing. If theres a standard style or process that
Kozyndan is known for, this would be it. The finished piece is kind of a jumbled
commentary on modern Japanese culture: the feminisation of the male populace, the
obsession with childlike purity, the sexualisation of young girls, and the overall
proclivity towards strangeness that the Tokyo megalopolis promotes.
Kozyndan
As a couple working comfortably (and successfully) together in illustration,
LA-based duo Kozyndan remain an industry rarity. We met in painting class in
college and had dated for a few years, says Dan. We were living together before we
made our first piece of art together. Kozy had done a long drawing of the inside of
our apartment and I liked it so much, I decided to colour it in Photoshop.
It was their famous collaborative design for the interior of LA store Giant Robot
spotted by shop founder Eric Nakamura that put them on the map. He liked it so
much, he asked us to do some illustrations for Giant Robot magazine, says Kozy. The
pencil lines are invariably still visible in their finished works, but, as Dan explains,
Photoshop is an essential tool: Once all the elements are scanned in, we composite
the characters into the environment and then clean the drawing up a process that
includes adjusting Levels, dodging and simply painting out imperfections and
mistakes. Then we put the image on both our computers and start painting under
the drawing in Photoshop. We just keep going until pretty much everything is
painted on either one file or the other, then we just put the colour layers from one
file into the other and clean everything up.
They dont use many techniques. We were both trained traditionally as illustrators,
says Kozy, so we treat Photoshop the same way we treat physical paintings
almost everything is done using the Brush tool. The pair are busy, but there was
one job they had to take. When the creator of Kozys favourite videogame, Katamari
Damacy, asked us to do an illustration about the game, we jumped at the chance.
www.kozyndan.com
/
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insight
Epson Stylus Pro 9800
Manufacturer: Epson
Price: 5,282
Web: www.epson.co.uk
The 44-inch Stylus Pro 9800 is part of Epsons UltraChrome K3 range and
exploits a proprietary inkset that offers three black inks for truly
superlative image quality. The print technology is Epsons own Micro Piezo
drop-on-demand with variable sized droplet technology and 3.5pl Epson
Ultra Micro Dot.
The print head configuration offers 180 nozzles in eight colours, and a
resolution of 2880x1440, with quoted print speeds for B0+/Plain Paper in Draft
Mode of up to 22.1m2 per hour. The 9800 also provides edge-to-edge and
borderless printing for media from 515mm-1117mm. Images printed with the
9800 will last a lifetime, with the UltraChrome K3 inks offering lightfastness for up
to 75 years for colour and 100 for black and white (if kept indoors).
The printer itself boasts a pleasingly formidable physical presence, measuring
1702mm x 678mm x1196m, weighing around 90kg and producing noise levels
around the 50dB mark.
Flexibility is the key for connectivity, offering USB 2.0, Firewire and optional
networking. The Stylus Pro is available for both the Mac and Windows platform,
supporting OSX, OS9 and Windows 98, 2000 and XP.
Wide-format
printers: best
of the best
For large-scale projects that demand
only the highest quality output and
performance, check out these six walletbusting offerings
By Steve Jenkins
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04.06
The A1+ 24-inch W6400 is a six-colour pigment ink Large Format Printer (LFP)
aimed specifically at the graphic arts market. It features a one-inch-wide, highdensity print-head that can produce microscopic 4-picolitre droplets for highquality imagery free of graininess. Output speeds of up to 2.2 minutes per page
when producing an A0-size
image ensures optimum
hardcopy turnaround
at the proofing
stage. A1 output,
on the other hand,
slashes the output
time by nearly half,
offering an
impressive speed of around
1.3 minutes per page.
The printer comes complete with
two bundled software packages. The
first, Digital Photo Print Pro, enables
users to process, enhance and print
photographs. Poster Artist,
meanwhile, comes with a set of
templates and images to
help you create large
format designs.
Kodak 1200i
Manufacturer: Kodak
Price: 60-inch: 10,077; 42-inch: 7,121
Web: www.encad.com
While the Kodak 1200i system offers great cost per print, the initial outlay will set
you back around 7,000. Still, you get a lot for your money, including high-speed
printing that delivers excellent image quality on every page. The dualcomponent rapid evaporation drying system improves drying efficiency, too,
facilitating rapid dry times for instant take-up and faster print-to-lamination time.
The Intelligent Mask Technology optimises colour gamut, density and vibrancy
without compromising speed, while the Kodak Quantum Inks deliver an
expanded colour gamut, enhanced durability and longevity for both
indoor and outdoor applications. The 1200i is available in
both 60-inch and 42-inch versions to suit all
your outputting needs.
Manufacturer: Kodak
Web: www.encad.com
Price: 2,814
The Kodak T200+ offers two distinct outputs, effortlessly switching from fullcolour graphics printing to four-colour or monochrome Computer Aided Design
output. The new CIS2 ink-set creates brilliant full-colour photographic images,
plus CAD drawings with distinct line acuity, thanks to the CIS2 pigment black ink
(with cyan, magenta and yellow) option.
For ultra-fast monochrome printing, the T200+ also offers a CIS2 ink-set with
four black pigment inks. This dual functionality is made easy maintain thanks to a
range of pre-filled ink
cartridges that simply
snap on and off for
quick, clean
installation. In
addition, ENCADs Ink Caddy
System holds ample ink for
extended printing. Handy
transparent caddies ensure
that printer ink levels are
visible at all times.
Whats more, the compact
and sleek design of the T200
ensures the printer wil be
able to find a home in
more compact
creative studios.
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Feature
online
art
BY ROSS CONSTANTINI
GALLERY
PAGES: Should
be simple to
navigate and
provide good
sized, clear
enlargements.
This example
shows effective
design together
with a userfriendly layout
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Online Art
DARRAN REES: Darran
has incorporated previous
contract work into his site,
acting both as a portfolio
and client list. This shot was
used in a Wrigleys
advertising campaign
Professional advice
KEEP IT SIMPLE: The simplicity
and strong graphical design on
Gene Peachs portfolio site provides
a professional appearance and
enhances the content, instead of
distracting from the photography
1
2
3
4
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Feature
Content
It is important not to overwhelm the viewer with
information and pictures. Keep it concise yet effective.
We recommend you plan your site around these
simple contents:
5 GALLERY PAGES:
Thumbnails should be large enough for the viewer
to recognise the content, and ideally be continually
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Online Art
Advertising your site is crucial. To avoid it getting
lost in the tangled mass of the web, its imperative
that your site has web presence. There are many
methods that can be used to raise your sites profile.
The most common and perhaps most effective is to
optimise it for search engines. This simply means that
by cleverly adapting the site coding, you can gain
a higher listing position in search engines. To have
your site listed among the first few results of a search
will guarantee more visitors. Another method is to
advertise your site on relevant photography sites
and search engines. This obviously costs money, but
it is a worthy investment if you advertise smartly. In
his experience, Gene Peach has seen the majority of
clients reach his site through group websites. Even
when my individual site floats at the top of a Google
search, I hear mostly from people who found it on
a New Mexico group listing. To get involved with a
local web group or with a group of similar content,
simply make contact and arrange a connection.
See www.guava.co.uk or www.Find-My-Link.com
for details on how a specialist company can help.
Copyrighting issues
Illegal downloading of images has always been a
hazard associated with portfolio sites. Darran Rees
was well aware of the risks, and ensured measures
were in place to protect his work. Illegal download
and copyright infringement are very important and
common parts of any web design or should be! In
my particular site we have an inbuilt mechanism that
prevents the download of images from the site, plus
the file-sizes are small enough so that they are not
able to be reproduced commercially. If you want to
keep image sizes as large as possible, watermarking
may be the best option.
Go interactive?
Macromedias Flash is increasingly being used in the
design and development of websites to enhance
the visual appeal and functionality. Incorporating
Flash content into a site is a great way of creating a
more appealing experience, and when used well can
RANCH ROAD: Taken from Lonna Tuckers portfolio
site, www.lonnatucker.com
Darran Rees
Publicising
E-commerce
Producing an online portfolio is a great way to get
your work out there; however, selling prints through
your site is an opportunity too few photographers
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Feature
ORIGINALITY:
Darran Rees highly
original site was
custom made to his
rough design. The
virtual gallery idea
was Darrans
concept, which was
brought to life by a
web developer
Darran Rees
5 DARRAN REES
I think my own site that is linked to my agents
websites has aided my career. The proof is the
various contacts we receive from people who
would not otherwise have seen the work. Generally
speaking, more people know my work now, more
people have access to my work now, and this is no
bad thing for an artist.
www.darranrees.com
5 LONNA TUCKER
Imageers have been concerned about the
declining number of assignments in the USA, and
that coupled with the state of the stock art
industry leads to rampant pessimism about the
photo business here. Hopefully, my existing client
base will remain strong, and the website will bring
new business my way.
5 GENE PEACH
I have no doubts that creating my website was the
best marketing decision of my career. My website is
the strongest connection with the great wide
yonder I have. Living and working in rural New
Mexico makes it tough for Gene to find local work:
My website is definitely my best tool for attracting
outside clients.
For a top-notch design, we recommend you take
a look at Genes site: www.genepeach.com. His
instructions to the developer were for a very
simple, elegant, easy-to-navigate and quick-to-load
site, which has resulted in one of the best sites
weve seen. Although the gallery images could do
with being slightly larger, the balance of aesthetics
and functionality are spot on great design.
Domain names
The domain name is the address of your website, for
example the Google search engines domain name is
www.google.com. Domain names are secured for a set
period; once the registration period is up, the domain
is free for other prospective web-developers to secure,
unless of course you decide to continue with the
domain. This should be the first thing you consider.
Names are being secured all the time, so when you
find an appropriate available name, secure it! Its
usually best to secure a domain thats simple and
provides a sense of the contents of the site. Involving
your name somewhere in the sequence is a good idea
because, after all, its your personal site and your name
is the front for your business. www.rc-photoshop.com
Contacts
www.Darranrees.com
www.lonnatucker.com
www.jamesrandklev.com
www.genepeach.com
www.taylorjames.com
www.foliolink.com
www.theimagefile.com
www.guava.com.uk
www.Find-My-Link.com
www.Xpose-gallery.co.uk
www.webeden.co.uk
www.buildmygallery.co.uk
www.jessett.com
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Online Art
Which host boasts
the most?
With so many options available, its worth
looking around for the best deal. Here are some
questions you should ask before picking a host:
2
3
4
is not quite as good as www.rosscostantini.com,
simply because when people search for your site, the
likelihood of them finding the latter is greater. If you
have a common name like John Smith, this domain
name may already have been secured by somebody
else. Therefore you may have to be a little creative,
and consider: john-smith, johnsmith-photo,
jsmithphotography, etc. Use www.checkdomain.com
to search for available domain names. Generally, .co.
uk/.info/.net names are less esteemed than .com, and
can be secured for a reduced price. However, domain
registration is very cheap, so go with .com if its still
available. To secure your domain name youll need to
register it through one of the numerous companies
that offers the service. Domains can typically be
secured for around 5 a year. www.godaddy.com is a
popular website where prospective webmasters can
register and secure their domain.
Hosting
Before you can publish your site, you will need to
arrange for it to be hosted on a dedicated computer
system. Hosting is a term used to describe a service
5
6
7
8
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Feature
GIRL IN
HEADSCARF:
Taken from focus52.
com. Many include
their name in the
web address, but
Greg chose not to
personalise his site,
giving it the potential
for branding
DOMAIN
REGISTRATION:
This is the first port
of call in your
publishing process.
The name can be a
crucial factor for a
successful site
Promotion
Promoting your website is extremely important. There
is simply no point in having a site published on the
net without anybody knowing about it. Promotion
can take many forms, and there are now services
available to help you publicise your site and increase
its visibility. Search engine optimisation is possibly the
most important promotional technique you can
employ. It is relatively easy to do, and can cost you
nothing. Search engine placement should be checked
regularly to maintain a high listing position. New
websites, and those that have been modified to
increase their visibility, may well push your site down
the listings, and so the likelihood is that your site will
get fewer visitors. Websites must be submitted to
search engines in order to be listed within searches.
Ideally, you should aim to submit your site to search
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Online Art
engines every four to six weeks. Start with the four
largest search engines: Yahoo, MSN, AOL and Google,
and work from there. www.addme.com offers free
submission to 14 major engines, saving you the
hassle of doing it yourself. To track the ranking of
your sites on search engines, take a look at SERanker
Pro from www.monocle-solutions.com.
Photographer Greg Funnell explained: Webrings
are now considered a degrading factor in this field,
alongside most links pages, with the exception of
those run by the search engine itself. It is important
that any sites you link to for promotion are
professional, and convey the same quality content as
your own. Webrings are not always a popular method
of promotion; almost anybody can join the ring, and
they generally do not help your image on the net.
Advertising is also a good way to increase
exposure and visitor numbers. Placing banners on
relevant websites is one way of advertising; another
is to exchange ad banners with other websites,
making it free! Paid advertising slots have to be
assessed to determine how many print sales are
generated from that particular ad. If the advert costs
50 a month and in that month only two sales were
directly generated, each sale cost 25 in advertising.
You have to decide whether this is an acceptable
margin. Other ads may have generated 20-30 sales, in
which case you are paying around 2 per print sale.
Assessing the performance of each advert is
important, firstly to understand what advertising
strategy works well, and secondly to eliminate those
ads which dont pay for themselves.
Linking with other related sites is a little more
discreet than banner ads. linkexchanged.com will put
you in touch with suitable partners. You should look
for sites with a good ranking, and plenty of traffic and
trade links with them.
Offline advertising is another way of generating
interest, and should not be forgotten. This method
allows you to target the audience, and can prove not
only cheaper but more effective than online
methods. Placing ads in specific magazines targets
the audience who may have a special interest in your
type of photography.
Other than that, just get your name out there.
Adding the URL and a short description of your
website to every email you send in your signature file,
letterheads and business cards is simple and free
marketing. Search for directories and listings of
photographic websites (or those relevant to your
area of specialisation), and get your site link up there.
Old fashioned business networking also helps; use
word of mouth both online and off. Relevant forums
are a good way to meet people and market your
MR HAWA: Greg
chose the name
focus52 because
he felt it rolled off
the tongue and
would therefore
be easier for
people to
remember it
Maintenance
Apart from updating with new work, photographic
portfolio sites dont require much maintenance.
Some maintenance tasks however, are well worth the
small amount of time they take to complete. Your
sites search engine listing is something that should
be checked every now and again to make sure you
havent been pushed down the list by other similar
websites. Another important maintenance check,
especially after uploading and editing your site, is to
check all of your sites links. This is something that
many site owners overlook, and doesnt give a good
impression to prospective clients or customers.
Case study
Advanced Photoshop spoke to photographer Greg
Funnell, a student who has recently set up his own
website with the help of his friend and
programmer Naresh Verlander. His deciding factors
when choosing a website host were partly specific to
his requirements:
When choosing a host, the deciding factor was
really reliability. However, obviously cost in hand,
and the features provided for that cost, also played
a decisive role (eg the inclusion of PHP, MySQL
processing, large space and bandwidth).
Once a host has been chosen, the domain has to be
pointed toward the host server. This basically means
that when the domain name is typed into a browser, it
knows where to find the site.
Contacts
netmechanic.com
addme.com
webeurope.co.uk
ipower.com
powweb.com
checkdomain.com
focus52.com
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Inter
view
MATTE
MAN
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Charles
Darby
Matte master
The bulk of Darbys commercial work is matte
painting for the movies, brought to life with the
help of Photoshop CS, a 2.5GB Mac G5 and
23-inch Apple monitor. Then, of course, theres his
CHARLES
DARBY:
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Inter
view
DUNGEONS &
DRAGONS: Director
When in Rome
Darby has spent most of his life in America, but he
travels the world a lot, often because the
production on which hes working demands it.
His most recent project was the BBCs historical
drama Rome. I was living there for just over three
months and thats the perfect-case scenario,
where youre creating ancient Rome and you can
go into the town, live in the town and look at all
the small details not the big stuff that you can
read about in books anyway. Its the small details
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Charles
Darby
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Inter
view
MINORITY REPORT: The movie started and stopped production a few
times, recalls Darby. The first time, it was going to be 200 years in the future, or
something. When youre working on a Spielberg production, he juggles with
quite a few productions and he chooses quite late in. It was closed down for
about six months while everybody waited to see whether he would do it or not.
When it came back, it was 50 years into the future.
Fifty years ahead was chosen because its more believable and theres quite
a lot of buildings even now that, in 50 years time, represent what most cities
will look like. We went to Washington DC and shot plates from the top of the
USA Today building I nearly froze to death up there, taking those plates over
a number of days.
Then we started planning cities which were believable based in reality. I
also got a helicopter to take me over LA, which was where I was living, and you
get a lot of reference from the height of the more modern buildings. For
conceptual reasons, I started placing them into this scheme, painting new tops
and changing the sides. It was quite a long process. In the end, we chose
something that was believable, but it had magnetic strips on it, I think, so that
cars could travel.
Composition counts
While the equipment may be struggling to keep
up, Darby avows that its not the be-all and end-all
of being a successful artist for film. When it comes
to VFX houses, theyve all got the same hardware
and software, so theres a level playing field, he
says. What they dont really find so easily is people
who understand what makes a good
composition; people who can draw out their ideas
and explain them. People who have a good sense
of history and can capture the flavour of a place.
For Rome, it wasnt just recreating Rome, but
having a flavour that feels right. You cant capture
it completely, because it has to work for a film.
And the better you are at drawing out your ideas
and creating compositions that convey a certain
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CROUCHING
TIGER, HIDDEN
DRAGON
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WORKSHOPS
ZIP IT UP!
7
PEER PRESSURE
78
Want to see how powerful Photoshop can be in the right hands? Then
take a look at some of the stunning imagery this month, including Times
Square Aftermath by Meowza, and the powerful XBot and NGCBot by Wai
Mann. If you like what you see, you can contact the artist directly, or just
read our in-depth descriptions and set about creating some magnificent
imagery of your own.
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Info
INSIDER INFO 1
68
7 42
URBAN
SNOW SCENES
7 58
CONCEPT ART
7 62
CASTING SHADOW 7 74
Making shadows look realistic can be a bit of a
bind, but not if you follow our expert advice.
HELPDESK
82
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MASTERCLASS
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Abstract design
Extra
Resources
Also included on the CD found on
the inside back cover of this months
Advanced Photoshop are nine other
renders that George is sharing with
you from his own personal
collection. Hes used these to create
some of his more recent artwork.
Feel free to use them to create some
of your own abstract designs.
ON THE DISC
Want to try out these expert techniques for
yourself? Then check out the relevant tutorial
file (R ender01.psd) provided on the cover
CD. Simply insert the disc into your drive and
follow the on-screen prompts.
OUR EXPERT
George is a self-taught 24-year-old digital artist who has been
creating for eight years. He houses his digital pieces on his
personal website EndEffect.com and also runs a clothing line,
Naature.com. Personal quote: I made fkn Gravity Well!
reating generic abstract designs can be a nightmare for a graphic artist. With vague commissions and
maybe only one or two elements to include within the artwork, the initial stages can be a traumatic
time. However, more often than not youll find that as soon as you start on your project, your creative
juices will begin to flow and your design will soon start to form. Knowing some essential skills and techniques
can help you make the process run a lot smoother and give you a great starting base for your art.
This tutorial sets out to show you how the abstract artwork on the previous page was created. More important than
the final design are the techniques used to create it. Once youve got the hang of the processes involved in shaping
together this design, you can create a masterpiece out of any original elements.
Well start off with some simple gradient techniques to give the design a strong, aesthetic background. Then, using
the file found on this months disc, the shot will be built together using basic selection commands and layer masks and
modes. You can also find out how to speed up the process with invaluable keyboard shortcuts. As the core of this
tutorial relies on some random image shifting, your end result will probably differ slightly from our final image. Dont fret
this is just your creative side letting rip!
Adding gradients
Use the Gradient tool to fill the selection and
make a transition from dark to light grey. Using the
Marquee, offset each bar a little from the previous one to
create a stair effect. (Make a selection around each bar
one at a time, then hold Ctrl+Shift while dragging up or
down to move the selection and lock it horizontally.)
Deselect everything, then rotate the bars 45 degrees
clockwise (hold Shift while rotating in order to snap to
15-degree increments)
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MASTERCLASS
4
Creating grit
Open render01.psd (included on the CD). Remove
the object from the background by going to the
Channels window and Ctrl-clicking on the Alpha
channel. Click and drag the object to the main canvas
using the Move tool (press V to select the tool). Using the
Magic Wand tool (press W to select it), click anywhere on
the render to create a random selection (you can alter
the Tolerance level of the tool to make it grab more or
fewer similar pixels).
Random shifts
Once you have your random selection, hide the
render layer and select your main bars layer. With the
Square Marquee tool, click and drag the random
selection so that a portion of it is overlapping our black
bars. Now press the Delete button on your keyboard.
Move the selection again and then hit Delete again.
Repeat this process a few times, moving the selection
each time in random spots. Also try Ctrl-clicking the layer
in order to create a selection; move it so that it is offset
and then hit the Delete button.
Adding elements
Now add elements to your work such as letters
and shapes. In this case well add a few capital letters
using the Ruritania font (included on the CD). Also try to
explore the grit you have created by Ctrl-clicking on
random layers to see what kind of random selections
you can get. We also added a regal lion (regal.psd on the
CD) which we duplicated and flipped horizontally to
make them standing with their backs to each other. Use
the same duplicate/select/delete technique to break
apart the lions and create chaos within them.
10
Colour layer
As a final touch, add a layer on top of
everything else and fill it with a solid colour, then play
around with the Layer Mode and Opacity. In this case, we
used Pastel Green Cyan, set the Opacity to 50% and set
the Layer Mode to Overlay. Change the Opacity and
overlap a few different colours to see what kind of results
you get. You can change the Layer Modes as well to
create even more different results.
Advanced Photoshop
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Step-by-step
Workshop
ZIP IT UP!
ON THE DISC
Youll find all the files you need to
complete this tutorial (orange_
zip.jpg, orange.jpg and zip_base.
jpg) on Disc A. Dont forget to
check out the two .psd files, too.
OUR EXPERT
Giles Angel
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Adjustment
Layers
The beauty of
Adjustment Layers,
although RAMhungry, is that you
can go back and
make changes later
on. Just double-click
on the layer
thumbnail icon in
the Layers palette to
bring up the
settings and make
your changes.
10
8
5
11
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MASTERCLASS
ON THE DISC
Youll find a stack of resources on the cover
CD to help you recreate the techniques
shown here, including a batch of handy
Photoshop Actions.
OUR EXPERT
Jason Arber
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Sepia
Sepia-toning can evoke the stylish look of an aged photograph if used in the right
way. In the 19th and early 20th Centuries, the pigment was prepared from the black
ink secreted by cuttlefish, but modern photographic processes rely on a chemical dye.
You can recreate this look in Photoshop with a high degree of flexibility
Colorize in Hue/Saturation
Open a colour image (or a greyscale one
converted to the RGB colour space) and select Hue/
Saturation from the Image menu (Image>Adjustments>
Hue/Saturation). Click the Colorize checkbox and move
the Hue slider until your image is a warm brown colour.
Solarisation
Invert image
This technique will work with colour and greyscale
images. Take an image and make a copy of the layer by
dragging it to the New layer icon at the bottom of the
Layers palette. Invert the duplicated layer (Image>
Adjustments>Invert) to create a negative.
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MASTERCLASS
Infrared
46
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Film grain
47
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MASTERCLASS
Lomo style
The Lomo Kompact was a Russianmade camera that, thanks to its unique
glass lens design and build, somehow
managed to produce vivid, saturated
images, even of the most mundane
subjects. Outgrowing its Communist
roots, Lomography has spawned
societies and aficionados all over the
world dedicated to the Lomo look
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Cross process
Remove contrast
Take an RGB image and duplicate the layer, turning
the top layers Blending mode to Luminosity to preserve
the image detail. With the bottom layer selected, create a
new Curves Adjustment Layer and remove some of the
contrast with a flattened S-shaped curve (ensure that the
light end of the curve is dragged down).
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MASTERCLASS
Converting to
black and white
Greyscale
RGB to Greyscale
The simplest and quickest way is to change Image
mode from RGB to Greyscale (Image>Mode>Greyscale).
Unless your image is destined for black-and-white
output, though, wed advise against this, since it throws
away two-thirds of the image information by condensing
three channels into a single Greyscale channel.
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Desaturation
Channel Mixer
Add saturation
The advantage of this method is that it maintains
all the detail in your original image, resulting in a richer
print when its converted to CMYK and output on a
process colour page. By adding a little saturation back
into the image, you can create some subtle, aged looks
that look almost like hand-tinted photographs.
Experiment!
The real fun with the Channel Mixer comes
when you experiment with the RGB sliders to achieve
100 per cent values that arent uniform across the
channels. You can make blue eyes paler, darken skin,
bring out hidden freckles and completely change the
tone of your photograph. 5
Colour
space
Many digital artists, Photoshop users and
professional photographers have never really
considered colour spaces or, if they have, decided
the subject is far too complex and moved on to the
more exciting business of creating images instead.
But understanding the topic is vital if you want to
get the most out of your work.
To confuse matters, a number of colour models,
such as CMYK, RGB, HSB and Lab, are mistaken for
colour spaces. In fact, the models define how
colours can be represented in terms of values,
while colour spaces define what the colours should
51
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Step-by-step
Workshop
UNDERWATER LOVE
Combine hand-drawn techniques and careful use of layer blending
and effects to create a compelling ocean scene
BY SAM GILBEY
ON THE DISC
Youll find all the accompanying
files and images youll need to
complete this tutorial (sketch.jpg)
on this issues free CD.
OUR EXPERT
Sam Gilbey
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Outlines beneath
Reduce the brush diameter, and use darker
tones to supplement the outline of the sketch.
Now proceed to work on the facial detail. Add a
subtle red to the cheeks. Adjust the brush size and
opacity as appropriate. Render the lips with some
light pink highlights, and introduce some varying
tones into the hair, following the basic flow of the
hairstyle. Use the Eraser to remove the crosshatched shading on the sketch.
53
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Step-by-step
Workshop
IF YOU GET
INTO THE
HABIT OF
USING LAYER
STYLES, YOU
WILL FIND
THEM
EXTREMELY
HANDY
A deeper blue
Duplicate the background layer, and then
drag it to the top of the layers. Now set the
blending mode to Multiply and the opacity to
48% so you can see through to the character.
Select the Eraser, and a soft-edged brush, setting
it to the largest size (2500). You may need to zoom
out, but proceed to erase the top half of this
gradient layer.
Light rays
Create a new layer beneath the character
and use the Polygonal Lasso to define the
boundaries of a light ray. Use the Gradient Fill tool
to apply a gradient that fades from white down to
a bright blue. Apply a broad Gaussian blur via the
Filter menu. Go to Layer>Layer Styles>Outer Glow
and apply a soft, bright blue glow. Set the opacity
of the ray layer to around 20%. Duplicate it and
move the new layer across to the right a little.
Repeat this process a few times and build up a
few rays of light cutting into the scene. They
should open out across the composition.
12
More photography
Next, we have used a photograph
taken by Hrvoje Pastar, which you will be
able to find at the following website:
www.fotolia.co.uk/id/178135.
Paste this photograph in over the other photo
layers, and then scale it up in order to make it fill
the entire canvas. Having done that, your next
step is to set the blending mode to Overlay and
the opacity to 59%. Finally, apply a Motion blur
by using the Filter menu, and set it at an
angle of 62.
10
Photographic texture
Weve used an image by Chronis
Chamaldis here, which you can purchase
relatively cheaply at the following site:
www.fotolia.co.uk/id/90501.
Paste the image above the background layer,
setting the layer blending mode to Hard Light.
Now go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation.
Decrease the Hue to 26, and the Lightness to
13. Use the Clone Stamp to copy the texture so
that it reaches the edges of the canvas.
11
Brighter rays
Now its time to make another
copy of the rays. Having done that, set the
opacity to 30%, and then use the same large
eraser to rub out the lower half, leaving a
brighter highlight at the top of the screen. The
next step is to duplicate the photography layer by
right-clicking or pressing Control-click in the layers
palette. Now set the blending mode to Overlay,
and then use the same eraser to remove the lower
half of the texture, again brightening up the top
half of your screen.
13
Dappled light
Your next step is to create a new layer
above everything else, and then select white as
your foreground colour. Youre going to create a
dappled light effect, and in order to do this you
need to paint a rippled pattern of light over the
girl varying the width and opacity of your softedged brush as you go. Having done that, use
a large soft eraser with a low opacity to reduce
the intensity of the light in a few places. Finally,
apply a Gaussian blur with a radius of 10 pixels,
and add an outer glow layer style. Keep the
blending mode on Screen, the spread at 0, and
put the size up to 84px.
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14
17
15
18
Blurred hair
Duplicate the hair layer above the
sketch and apply a reasonably subtle Motion blur.
Repeat the process, rotating the hair very slightly
each time and varying the blur. Its only really the
isolated hairs in the water that need to blur, so you
can erase anything else around the face.
Jellyfish colours
Create a new layer below the sketch,
and set the blending mode to Hard Light. With a
large soft-edged brush (around 150), at an opacity
of around 30%, start to paint in the jellyfish. Use
pinks and purples, building up the texture with
round marks. Paint the tendrils, and the inside of
the jellyfish that you can just see below, in white.
Jelly veins
Create a new layer on top of the
jellyfish, and using a fine brush with a very low
opacity, paint in pale orange veins spreading out
over the top of it. Apply a small Gaussian blur and
copy the layer. Increase the brush size and create a
soft halo of orange and white light around the top.
Brush creation
Weve just used brush creation tools in
Photoshop for our bubbles, but you could
easily exploit this technique further,
especially in the creation of an underwater
scene. Take a look at the other brush
dynamics that are available to you,
especially the Color dynamics. For
instance, you could create a brush design
of a single fish, and use brush dynamics to
quickly render a whole school of them in
the background. Play with brightness
settings, and theyll even start to shimmer
in the underwater light, or automatically
vary the angle that theyre placed at.
Perhaps you could use brush dynamics to
create coral, or simply to add texture to
sand and rocks on the seabed.
Jelly blur
Select all the layers that make up the jellyfish and group them. Duplicate the group and then merge the lower group.
Apply a gentle Radial blur of around 12 pixels to the layer, with the centre point near the top of the jellyfish. Now rotate the
blurred version about 2 degrees counter-clockwise to create a sense of movement. Enhance the pale orange highlights on both
the girl and jellyfish on a new layer, and Motion blur them slightly. At this stage weve also repositioned the light rays for better
composition, and added a new one in front of the girl.
16
Luminous tentacles
Create a new layer beneath, and use a
soft white brush at varying sizes and with a low
opacity, to build up the long tentacles. Apply a
bright blue/purple outer glow layer style, with the
blending mode set to Normal and a size of 18px.
Create a new layer above everything, and repeat
the technique, adding soft brighter highlights
here and there. Use a light blue outer glow on this
layer, and erase the pencil sketch over the jellyfish.
Advanced Photoshop
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Step-by-step
Workshop
20
TO GET THE
MOST OUT OF
THESE
TECHNIQUES,
IT WILL
HELP TO
STUDY SOME
UNDERWATER
PHOTOS
19
Bubble brush
Create a new document thats 500 x
500 pixels, at 300 dpi. Using the techniques you
prefer, create an image of a bubble, essentially a
circle with a soft edge and a few highlights. Note
that the blacker the line, the more opaque that
part of the brush will be, and white will be
completely transparent. Flatten the image once
youre ready, and go to Edit>Define Brush
Preset. Name your brush Bubble and click OK.
It will appear at the bottom of the current
brush set.
Brush dynamics
To the right of the Options bar,
youll find the Brushes tab. Open it and turn on
Shape Dynamics. Set Size Jitter to 100%. Also turn
on Scattering and set it to the maximum. From
Other Dynamics, set Opacity Jitter to 60%.
Proceed to paint bubbles around the canvas, with
the diameter at 80, on a new layer at the top.
Dont make more than a couple of bubbles at
a time. After a while, reduce the brush diameter
and add some smaller ones. Apply a soft white
outer glow layer style, and a vertical Motion blur
of 7 pixels.
23
Deeper sea
At this stage you might want to adjust
the colours of the girl, so that she complements
the background better. Use the Layer>
Adjustments options, or create a new Adjustment
layer in order to make your changes. Go back
down to the bubbles photo, and then add a new
layer. Create a gradient that fades up from the
bottom into nothing this time, covering
approximately one third of your screen. Now
apply a Color Overlay and experiment with
various tones. Weve gone for a suitable deep
sea green/blue.
21
More bubbles
On a new layer, create lots of tiny
bubbles, following the girls hair and the tendrils of
the jellyfish in particular. Go back down to the
photo of bubbles we added, and duplicate the
layer. Move it above the photo of the bubbles, set
the blending mode to Overlay and the opacity to
37%. Apply a Color Overlay layer style with a midtoned orange. Set the opacity of the overlay to
57%. Use a large soft eraser to remove the top
sixth or so of the layer, revealing the lighter
tones beneath.
22
24
Final details
Go and have another look at the
character, and then add any more detail that you
think it may need. Concentrate in particular on the
face, especially the lips and eyes. We have also
added quite a lot more bubbles here, on various
layers so that we can blur them to different
amounts. Besides this, weve also brought the hair
around the front of the neck to create the
impression that the water is swirling. Now why
dont you try experimenting with using some
of these techniques in an underwater scene of
your own?. 5
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Step-by-step
Workshop
LET IT
SNOW!
ON THE DISC
Youll find all the files you need to
complete this tutorial (snow_start.
jpg, snow done.tif and snow smaller.
psd) on the cover CD.
OUR EXPERT
Tim Shelbourne
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Fine detail
Reduce the Opacity of the brush to 40 per
cent and paint a rough line over the top of the car.
Paint a line across the cars bumper and over the
wheel arches to give the impression of settled
snow. You can easily reduce or increase the size
of the brush by using the [ or ] keys.
Adjust highlights
Now to lighten the snow highlights. Go to
Image>Adjustments>Levels. Drag the White
Point slider to the left, setting Input at 180, then
the Gamma (Midpoint) slider to the left to a value
of 1.00. Click OK and set the Layer Blending mode
to Hard Light in the Layers palette.
More snow
Now paint over the rooftops and chimneys
on the main building. Take care to keep to the
outlines of the rooftop areas. If you accidentally
paint over any areas of sky, simply swap your
foreground and background colour (X) and paint
back into the mask with Black. Reveal the snow
only along the top edge of the guttering, so that
the shaded area underneath shows through from
the background layer. By varying the Opacity of
the brush over parts of the rooftops you can easily
reduce/increase the apparent snow cover.
Layer Mask
essentials
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Step-by-step
Workshop
Blizzard conditions
11
10
14
Snow is noisy
Add another new layer (Cmd/
Ctrl+Shift+N) and fill it with Black via
Edit>Fill>Contents: Black. Now go to
Filter>Noise>Add Noise. In the dialog, check
Monochromatic and choose Gaussian for
Distribution. Drag the Amount slider to 75
per cent. Click OK to apply the noise.
12
15
Generating snowfall
Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use a
Blur Radius of 5 pixels and click OK. Now go to
Image>Adjustments>Levels and drag all three
pointers, so that they sit closely together towards
the right-hand end of the short histogram. Youll
be left with just white clumps on a black
background, which look pretty much like
snowdrifts. To complete the illusion, set the
Blending Mode to Screen.
13
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A PRESSURE-SENSITIVE
GRAPHICS TABLET REALLY
WORKS WELL WITH THIS
KIND OF PROJECT. JUST
HIT F5 AND SET OPACITY
JITTER TO PEN PRESSURE
16
Swirling snow
Go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur and
set the Angle to 23 and Distance to, say, 10-15.
Click OK to apply. To intensify the snow, duplicate
this layer via Layer>Duplicate Layer. Now use
the Eraser tool (with a soft brush) to erase some
areas of this duplicated layer and vary the opacity
of the swirling snowflakes.
21
19
17
Snow focus
Click on the lower snowflake layer
and duplicate it (Cmd/Ctrl+J). Flip the layer via
Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal, then drag the
duplicate to the top of the layer stack. Now blur
this layer via Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use a Blur
Radius of 8 pixels and click OK.
18
Getting colder
To enhance the effect, we now need to
cool the entire image down a little. Photo Filter is
ideal for the job. Go to Layer>New Adjustment
Layer>Photo Filter, click OK, and, in the Filter dropdown, choose Cooling Filter (80). Set the Density
20
Where next?
Once youve mastered this technique, why not try it on a portrait
to add a little wintry interest? The secret is to use your Photoshop
brushes subtly on the Layer Masks to reveal the snow and frost
at varying intensities over skin and clothes. By increasing the
Density of the final Photo Filter Adjustment Layer, you can give
the finished portrait a strikingly cool blue ambience.
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Step-by-step
Workshop
CONCEPT ART
Add a hand-drawn polish to your pre-production artwork with this sci-fi themed
workshop, where youll learn to master the art of light, shadow, colour and tone
BY SAM GILBEY
ON THE DISC
All the files you need to
complete this workshop
(concept_bck.jpg, robot_
sketch and final_artwork.psd)
are provided on the cover CD.
OUR EXPERT
Sam Gilbey
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First marks
Open the file called robot_sketch.jpg and
create a new layer. Select the Brush tool from the
Tools palette and click on the small arrow next to
the icon on the Options bar showing the brush
diameter. From the default brush set, choose the
Hard Round 19 pixels brush. With the foreground
colour set to Black and Brush Opacity at 100 per
cent, start going over the pencil lines.
Extra definition
By and large, all your lines at this stage
will be of a similar thickness. We want to see a
difference between the lines that simply connect
shapes and those that make up the edges of the
character. So increase the brush size to around 25
and go over the edges with it. Make sure you do
the same with the head in front of the neck and
the gun arm in front of the leg.
Night in at
the movies
Next time you watch
a movie, particularly
anything in the
sci-fi or fantasy
genre, remember
that everything you
see on screen was
visualised by an
artist long before it
became a 3D CG (or
real) model. Luckily,
thanks to the fact
that its become
the norm to offer
behind-the-scenes
footage on DVD
movie releases,
concept art galleries
are becoming
increasingly
accessible. Its always
interesting to see
why some ideas
never made it to
the final cut
Creating believable
worlds is all about
establishing a
coherent logical
narrative, and the
concept artist needs
to imbue his or her
work with sensible
choices as much as
creative flourishes.
A rough idea
Open the file called concept_bck.jpg.
As you can see, this is in a much rougher state
than the character design sketch. It has a strong,
angular composition, but well need Photoshops
help to turn it into something more tangible, and
with any luck, more impressive.
Two-toned robot
Create a new layer between the
background and the black outlines. After setting
the brush size to around 65, colour the robot in
with two flat tones. Use a light silvery grey for the
head and all the main limb panels, and a darker
grey/blue for the other areas and the gun. If you
havent already, save your file. Now its time to
work on the background.
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Step-by-step
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Master of
concepts
12
A question of symmetry
The reactor was drawn freehand, but is
meant to be symmetrical. Use the Pen tool to
create a shape that follows the outlines of the lefthand edge. When it comes to the ellipses at the
top, use the Convert Point tool to turn the straight
lines into curves. Adjust the handles of the points
using the Direct Selection tool.
10
13
15
16
Use Paths to
outline the ellipses
We want the ellipses at the top of the object to
have black outlines, too, but it can be difficult to
do this freehand when you cant rotate the canvas.
Starting with the internal ellipse, create a shape
using the Ellipse tool. Go to the Paths palette and
click on the small arrow at the top-right. Select
Make Selection from the options. Keep the
Feather Radius at 0 and make sure that its antialiased. Revisit the layer with the outlines and, via
Edit>Stroke, apply a 5-pixel centred stroke.
17
11
When a circle
becomes an ellipse
Now its time to create a circle. Use the Elliptical
Marque tool, but hold down Shift to constrain
the shape. Fill the circle with a light blue. Copy it
to the clipboard and open the Vanishing Point
filter once more. Drag it so that it snaps to the
ceiling grid youve created, then position it over
the ellipse at the top of the reactor. Click OK.
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An excellent
resource
One of the first
places you really
must take a look
at is the easy-toremember www.
conceptart.org.
Be warned, though
theres so much
talent in the field,
visiting the site can
be a little daunting.
Dont be put off,
though. Browse the
forums and, once
youve had a few
attempts at creating
your own pieces,
show them off. A
bit of constructive
criticism can only
improve your game.
25
26
23
20
24
Building it up
Reduce the size of the brush slightly
and work over the texture with different tones.
Add depth by darkening the panels at the bottom
and around the edges. Use a clean hard Eraser to
remove brushstrokes that overlap the lines.
21
A Photoshop
specialist
Many still think
concept art is largely
produced in Painter,
not Photoshop, but
this isnt the case.
Painter certainly has
some interesting,
powerful features,
with its emphasis
on reproducing
natural media, but
Photoshop has its
own strengths, too.
Many artists use
both, of course,
but one artist who
swears by Photoshop
alone is Niklas
Jansson. Check out
his superb work at
www.itchstudios.
com/psg/.
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Step-by-step
Workshop
28
Need more
brushes?
29
32
30
Additional markings
The panels added earlier have given
the reactor presence, but we can go further. On a
new layer, with a round brush (Size: 9), draw in
straight lines to represent additional markings on
the structure. Dont think too much about where
these should go, but try and complement the
structure youve already established.
33
A blurry background
Create a new layer underneath all
those youve created for the reactor. Using the
brushes youve already used from the Dry Media
selection (but at much larger sizes), build up the
background in terms of tone and texture. Go to
Filter>Box Blur and apply a Blur of 99 pixels, then a
Motion Blur of 350 pixels at an Angle of 0 degrees.
Textures play an
important role in
concept art, even
if they lie hidden
beneath the broader,
obviously handmade strokes. Weve
used some of the
Dry Media brushes
to add detail to our
piece, but you dont
have to stop there.
Creating your own
brushes is easy
and you could even
bring in some
photographic
textures to help.
Essentially, you can
turn any bitmap into
a brush, by clicking
on Create Brush
Preset from the
Edit menu. When
combined with the
powerful brush
dynamics, such as
Scattering, the
possibilities really
are endless.
35
36
Something to reflect on
Once youre happy with the results,
its time to add the reflections of the objects in
the floor. Go to File>Save As and save your image
as a JPEG, 100 per cent quality. Open it up and
copy and paste the reactor onto the main canvas.
Flip it vertically, remove anything beyond its outer
edge, set Layer Mode to Lighten and Opacity to
50 per cent. Apply a Gaussian Blur of 2.3 pixels.
Repeat the technique for the rest of the
background, with the floor as the reflection
point. Cut around the reactor shape as well.
34
31
37
A bit of character
Go back to the character design and
group the outline and flat colour layers. Drag the
result to the main canvas and position it
appropriately. Starting with hard-edged brushes
at a low Opacity, build up the surface with streaks
that follow the contours of the body. This should
be beneath the outlines. Apply a Color Overlay
style to the outlines layer, changing the colour
from black to dark grey. On a new layer above, use
a soft-edged brush to add glowing, airbrush-style
highlights. Finally, add a broad blue highlight to
the right-hand side of the character. 5
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Insider
Info
A note
about Sets
Bridges Find command can not only help you to locate files by name,
date and type, but also by keywords and collection. Adobe expert Trevor
Morris explains how to get the most from this advanced functionality
OUR EXPERT
Trevor Morris
Keywords
Quite simply, keywords are typically
nouns people, places or things that
you associate with your files to categorise
Keywords saved
As of version 1.0.2, Bridge saves your keywords as an XML-based Preference file,
which makes them easy to back up, share and even edit with a simple text
editor. Keywords are saved on exit to a file named Adobe Bridge Keywords.xml,
located in the following folder:
Mac: <hard drive>/Users/<user name>/Library/Application Support/
Adobe/Bridge/
PC: C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application Data\Adobe\Bridge\
Note: Bridge 1.0.2 is an essential update, with improved overall stability and
performance, and is highly recommended for all Bridge users.
FIND DIALOG: Bridges powerful Find dialog enables you to add up to 13 unique
criteria for finding exactly the files youre looking for. For example, this is what
the Find dialog might look like if you were trying to find all Raw photos that
contained the keywords sunset and Fredericton, shot this year, with a rating of
three stars or more.
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INSIDER
INFO
1
2
3
4
5
6
ADOBE STOCK PHOTOS: Available via the Favorites panel, this is an online library of royalty-free images. There are
thousands to choose from and you have the option to download free, low-resolution comps until you decide to buy the highresolution print versions.
Collections
Where are
comps stored?
To view and manage your offline
comps, first click on Adobe Stock
Photos in the Favorites panel, then
click on Downloaded Comps.
Alternatively, navigate to the
default folder where comps are
saved, as follows:
Mac: My Documents\
AdobeStockPhotos\
PC: Documents/AdobeStockPhotos/
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Insider
Info
elcome to the last chapter in our four-part Adobe Bridge series. Over the past
three chapters weve discussed: the interface; selecting, ranking and labelling;
managing and locating your media files; keywords, collections and Adobe Stock
Photos. In this final part well explore Bridges Slideshow as well as some ways
you can customise the Bridge interface and functionality to optimise your workflow.
Auto-launch
Theres a further Bridge setting that
might be of interest, but it actually
appears inside the Photoshop
Preferences dialog. Launch
Photoshop and choose Edit>
Preferences>General, then select
Automatically Launch Bridge to
have Bridge launch whenever
Photoshop does.
Locked files?
When a file is already opened in
another application (Photoshop, for
example), a document/paper icon
appears near the bottom-right of its
thumbnail (in the content area).
Until the file is closed (and the icon
disappears), you cannot rename or
delete the file, nor can you assign a
rating or label.
Slideshow
On the surface, Bridges Slideshow looks
and feels much like any other slideshow,
but its actually a surprisingly powerful
view mode. To launch Slideshow, press
Cmd/Ctrl+L, or choose View>Slide Show.
The first time you launch Slideshow, a
help overlay appears with a summary of
the available keyboard shortcuts: this
summary may be accessed again at any
time by pressing the H or ~ (tilde) key.
By default, Slideshow displays the
selected files in Fullscreen mode press
W to toggle Window mode on and off.
Press the spacebar to begin/pause
automatic playback, or use the left/right
arrow keys (or Page Up/Page Down) to
move to the previous or next file.
In addition to simply viewing your
media files, you can also perform the
following operations while youre in
Slideshow mode:
assign a rating of one to five stars (15)
increase/decrease ratings by one star
(period/comma)
clear ratings (zero)
apply a label (69)
rotate left/right ( [ / ] )
Slideshow is perfect for rating your
digital photographs, reviewing and
labelling comps with a client, or for
simply seeing your images fullscreen.
You can even view and navigate the
pages of an Acrobat document (PDF) in
Slideshow mode.
Workspaces
One of the things that makes Bridge such
a versatile application is its flexible user
interface: panels may be resized,
reorganised or hidden; there are four
different view modes; thumbnails can be
almost any size, and so on. Thankfully,
Two views
To compare two images
side by side in Windows, try
the following:
1. Launch Bridge and
choose File>New Window
(Ctrl+N).
2. In the Windows Taskbar,
Ctrl-click on the first
Bridge, so that both
application footprints
are selected.
3. Right-click on either of
the application footprints and choose Tile Vertically.
Voila! Now you can compare and rate your images without having to
remember your previous pics.
Note that while you cant save multiple Bridge windows as a single
workspace, you can save each one independently (ie, 2-Up View, Left and 2-Up
View, Right).
you can save these layouts as
Filmstrip Focus (Cmd/Ctrl+F5)
workspaces by choosing
horizontal Filmstrip view with large
Window>Workspace>Save Workspace.
thumbnails and all panels hidden
The Save Workspace dialog also enables
To delete a custom workspace, simply
you to save the window size and position choose Window>Workspace>Delete
as well as assign a keyboard shortcut
Workspace and select the workspace to
something we highly recommend if you
be deleted. Note that you cannot delete
plan to switch between workspaces on a
any of the five preconfigured workspaces
regular basis. Saved workspaces are
mentioned above.
appended to the bottom of the
Window>Workspace submenu.
Preferences
Bridge has five preconfigured
Like the rest of its CS2 siblings, Bridges
workspaces:
interface and behaviour can be further
Default (Cmd/Ctrl+F1) tiny
customised via the Preferences dialog:
Thumbnails view with three sets of
Bridge>Preferences (Cmd+K) on the Mac,
panels (Favorites/Folders, Preview and
or Edit>Preferences (Ctrl+K) on the PC.
Metadata/Keywords). This is the initial
The Preferences dialog is divided into
FIND DIALOG: Bridges powerful Find dialog enables you to add up to 13 unique
out
of
the
box
layout.
six
pages.
page
criteria for finding exactly the files youre looking
for.The
For General
example,
thisenables
is what you
the
Lightbox
to:tochange
background
ofcontained
the
Find
dialog(Cmd/Ctrl+F2)
might look like ifsmall
you were trying
find allthe
Raw
photos that
theThumbnails
keywords sunset
Fredericton,
shot
this year,
with
ratingof
ofgrey;
threetoggle
stars
view withand
all of
the
content
area to
anya shade
or panels
more. hidden
tooltips on/off; customise up to three
File Navigator (Cmd/Ctrl+F3) medium lines of thumbnail metadata; choose
Thumbnails view with the Favorites
which of the default icons appear in the
and Folder panel
Favorites panel. There are also two
Metadata Focus (Cmd/Ctrl+F4)
controls/buttons one to reveal the
medium Thumbnails view with the
scripts in Finder/Explorer, and the other
large Metadata panel, as well as the
for resetting all warning (ie, turn them
Favorites and Keywords panels
all back on).
The Metadata page allows you to
choose which metadata fields or groups
of fields appear in the Metadata panel.
Theres also an option at the bottom of
the page to hide empty fields.
The options on the Labels page enable
you to customise your labels just the
names, not the colours and designate
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INSIDER
INFO
Colour settings
If you own the entire Creative Suite
2, you can even synchronise your
colour settings by choosing Edit>
Creative Suite Color Settings. This
single set of preferences controls
the colour settings for Photoshop
CS2, Illustrator CS2 and InDesign
CS2, helping to ensure colour
fidelity as you move from screen to
print, and file to file.
SLIDESHOW HELP: Press the H or ~ (tilde) key while in Slideshow to display a summary of keyboard shortcuts.
whether or not the Cmd/Ctrl key is
required when applying labels and
also ratings.
The File Type Associations page is
used to specify which applications open
which types of files when double-clicked
or opened via File>Open (Cmd/Ctrl+O)
from within Bridge. Note that any
changes made on this page affect only
Bridge, not the operating system or any
other application.
The Advanced page is broken into two
main categories: Miscellaneous and
Cache. The first option under
Miscellaneous allows you to specify the
maximum file size (in Megabytes) for
which Bridge will create a thumbnail and
image preview. Immediately below that
you can indicate the number of folders
(between 0 and 30) to be displayed in the
Look In drop-down located on the main
application toolbar.
Next, you can designate which
application Bridge (checked) or
Photoshop (unchecked) will host the
Camera Raw plug-in when doubleclicking on camera raw files. Note that
regardless of which you choose, File>
Open in Camera Raw (Cmd/Ctrl+R) will
always open camera raw files in Bridge.
Finally, the Language drop-down allows
Conclusion
That concludes our coverage of Adobe
Bridge, but weve only touched the tip of
the iceberg, so youre encouraged to
continue exploring its potential. Dont let
the simple interface fool you: Bridge is a
deceptively powerful application
especially for an initial release.A
Bridge updates
Make sure you get the Bridge 1.0.3 update from Adobes website:
PC: www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=108&platf
orm=Windows
Mac: www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=108&plat
form=Macintosh
This patch greatly improves the stability and speed of Adobe Bridge, and it
also adds a few enhancements. Note that 1.0.3 is a cumulative update, so you
need not download 1.0.1 or 1.0.2 before installing 1.0.3.
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Step-by-step
Workshop
LOSING FOCUS
Attempting to create the effect of narrow depth of field was a difficult task until
Adobe introduced its new Lens Blur filter into Photoshops arsenal of effects
BY JASON ARBER
ON THE DISC
Youll find lots of stock photos on
the disc to practise your depth of
field technique on, including
truskawki.tif.
OUR EXPERT
Jason Arber
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See sharp
Open up the image truskawki.tif in
Photoshop CS2. Aside from a small amount of
blurring in the top and bottom left, most of the
strawberries are still quite sharp. The plan is to
create a plane of focus that concentrates on the
central strawberry.
Gaussian Blur is fine for most kinds of blurring, but its smooth
blur distribution doesnt reflect how the world is seen through a
camera lens. The new Lens Blur filter, on the other hand, has
been built from the ground up to emulate camera optics,
including specular highlights and a more natural looking kind of
focus bloom that increases as objects become more blurred.
Because its aimed at pro photographers and retouchers, the
Lens Blur filter includes useful features such as Noise
replacement for out-of-focus areas that emulates film grain or
digital camera noise still existing in the sharp areas of the image.
New channel
Create a new channel in the Channels
palette by clicking the Create New Channel
button at the bottom of the palette. Double-click
on the new channel, rename the channel Depth
Mask and change the default colour to something
other than red.
Finishing touches
The filter can take a while to apply its
calculations to the whole image. Once done
check the results, which may vary slightly from the
preview if the Faster option was selected. Undo
the results if youre not happy with them and
reapply the filter, tweaking the settings. Once
youre happy, apply the Smart Sharpen filter
(Filter>Sharpen>Smart Sharpen) to make the infocus areas really sharp. 5
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Step-by-step
Workshop
CASTING SHADOWS
Discover how the characteristics of a light source and the contours and texture of
an objects surface impact on the casting of virtual shadows
ON THE DISC
Youll find all three .psd files to
accompany this tutorial
(cartoon001, cartoon002 and
cartoon003) on Disc A.
OUR EXPERT
Christian Darkin
ME AND MY SHADOW
Basic shading
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Hard shadows
4
2
DARK-LsoEftK
Place it
You can now place the shadow and, if
necessary, distort it a little further to fit perfectly
with the object thats casting it. Reducing the
Opacity a little will allow for the effects of
bounced and filler lights in your scene.
Shadow
shapes
Using a duplicated
layer as a shadow
doesnt work all the
time. Beyond a
certain point (if the
shadow is cast at an
extreme angle, for
instance), youll
have to draw or edit
the outline by hand
or the result will
look unnatural. As
always, trust your
artistic instincts. If it
doesnt look right,
its time to get your
hands dirty.
Soft shadows
Create a shadow
Even on the brightest day, shadows are
rarely solid blocks of colour, and they blur and
fade with distance. To recreate this effect, start off
with a sharp shadow (as created on the left).
Add a blur
Now add a Gaussian Blur to diffuse the
shadow at its edges. Doing this often creates an
unwanted shadow around the bottom of the
object on its lit side, because the Blur tends to
spread the shadow out. Youll need to tidy this up
with an Eraser.
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Step-by-step
Workshop
Distorted
shadows
3
2
Create a shadow
To produce a more sophisticated shadow,
and adjust it for different times of day, again, start
by copying the layer and eliminating Brightness
and Contrast. This time, well use a different kind of
Blur to produce a more realistic dissipating shadow.
4
3
Create a gradient
Create a new layer and use the Gradient
tool to produce a gradient from black to white
over the length of the shadow. Select and cut the
gradient out, then, switching to the Channels
palette for the shadow layer, produce a new
channel and paste the gradient into it. Meanwhile,
fill in the background of the shadow layer with
white and set it to Darken mode..
Subtlety
Most shadows in the real world are quite subtle. In most lighting
conditions, theres so much light bouncing around, that perfectly
sharp, solid areas of shadow are rare. The shadows were creating
are mainly there to convince viewers that the objects inserted
are part of the original shot, or at least to give them a solid
place within the shot. Theres really no need to make them
too powerful.
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field effect using a matte to define the depth of
objects in a shot. The upshot is that by producing
a simple gradient, and switching the Camera Blur
to use that alpha channel as its source, we can
produce a blur that grows uniformly stronger over
the length of the shadow.
Multiple shadows
With multiple light sources, youll need to generate more than
one shadow, of course, but bear in mind that each one will need
to be a different shape and Opacity settings will be affected by
neighbouring light sources. This kind of shading is most often
used when representing an object under artificial lights, such as
stage spotlights or stadium floodlights.
USE THE
LEVELS
FILTER TO
MAKE
SHADOWS
SHARPER OR
SOFTER
STEP-BY-STEP
Add a highlight
Depending on the time of day and strength
of the light, the shading of the object itself will
change. Of course, you cant switch the shadow
from one side of a face to the other very easily, but
you can use tools like the Levels filter to make
shadows sharper or softer, depending on the mood
of your image. Occasionally, painting in artificial
highlights can work, but if youre not careful, the
result can look unrealistic.
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Youll stand a better chance of seeing your work in print if you adhere to the
following criteria: make sure that your images are high-quality TIFFs or JPEGs (RGB
or CMYK), 300dpi minimum, and can be printed at 15cm x 15cm minimum. Dont
forget to include a small text file detailing how you created your work, too.
Wooden Shoe
NAME: Juthathip Tybon
EMAIL: jeab_qld@yahoo.com.au
SOURCE: Original photography by Ernest von Rosen
After preparing the raw materials generating the best
black-and-white image by selecting the optimum Colour
Channel, then duplicating the selection into a new
image Juthathip applied a Gaussian Blur to
eliminate sharp edges. She then saved this as
a new .psd file, to be used as a Displacement
Map later on. Now it was simply a matter of
manipulating the image using two layers,
created from the original shoe shot and
the wooden texture, she explains. After
selecting the layer with the wooden
texture, I applied the Displacement
filter, using the .psd file. After
placing the texture over the shoe, I
applied a Layer Mask to cut out
the unwanted regions of the
wooden texture layer.
Kitty Koozie
and Times
Square
Aftermath
ARTIST: Meowza
EMAIL: meowza@gmail.com
SOURCES: www.sxc.hu, Times Square image
by Rose Forschen (used with permission)
The faintly disturbing Kitty Koozie
proved a great testbed for Meowzas
hair and fur techniques particularly
the furry edges of the cats head: I did
this simply by taking a one-pixel brush
and painting in some rough fur around
the figure, he says. I then used the
Smudge tool, set at 50-60 per cent
pressure, to pull the tips of the fur to
create a more natural, flowing look.
After that it was a case of finding an
object to insert into the hollowed-out
feline I played around with a number
of objects, including a cat wearing a
cat-suit and a mouse in cats clothing,
but ultimately went with the beer-can.
The scene of devastation seen in
Times Square Aftermath goes to show
just how powerful Photoshop can be
in the right hands and enabled
Meowza to practise his flame and
smoke effects. Starting with a
strong, clean image is the most
important step, he says. There are
a million ways to create fire and
smoke, as any Photoshopper can tell
you. My approach was to find strong
source images of fire, explosions and
smoke to reduce the amount of
drawing-in work Id have to do.
He set about pasting these source
images into his original image, using
the Smudge tool set at various widths
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Security Beetle
ARTIST: Brant Vondruska
EMAIL: bvondruska@charter.net
XBot and
NGCBot
NAME: Wai Mann
CONTACT: wman@fullcontrast.com
These two mecha designs, created
entirely in Photoshop (bar the right
hand of the NGCBot, below-right,
created using 3ds max), prove just how
adept Adobes 2D app is at generating
3D effects. Each bot was assembled
from a basic image of its respective
console (NGC GameCube and Xbox),
before being edited into shape.
With the NGCBot, the flame effects
proved particularly troublesome. I
spent a long time manipulating them,
and they still didnt look like they
emanated from the robot in the correct
way, he says. But after some proper
research, I found a few images that
worked really well.
It was all a matter of resizing and
carefully masking out the areas that
werent required; the dark backdrop
helped immensely. Using the Screen
filter enabled me to place the flames
in the correct parts without having to
mask unwanted black areas, he says.
The electricity was added as a final
flourish and to fill out the left arm a
little. I lifted this from another piece of
my work. I altered the colours and
screen-filtered the background out.
Attaching real human fists helped the
Xbot (above) look more realistic,
reckons Wai: It makes it feel slightly
more organic. He created the head
entirely from shapes cut out using the
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Gargoyle
ARTIST: Den Cops
EMAIL: den@kyzer.co.uk, www.kyzer.co.uk
The idea here was to create a living gargoyle; the source
image simply showed a face with a cracking mud mask. Bits
of skin were still visible the area around the eyes, the lips
and ears which I had to cover, using mostly the Clone Stamp
and Patch tools. Den then placed a Hue/Saturation layer mask
over the top to homogenise the colour scheme. Out of this
Hue/Saturation layer, I masked the mouth and the eyes to retain
original flesh tones, and brightened the eyes a little. The
Liquify>Forward Warp tool helped with the fangs, but he had to
be careful. First, I had to copy-merge the mouth on a different
layer, mainly because, when using Forward Warp on the teeth,
the surrounding area the other teeth and the back of the
mouth were dragged along with it and unpleasant banding
appeared. After applying the filter, Den could more easily
mask out the unwanted liquified areas.
Blue Car
ARTIST: Den Cops
EMAIL: den@kyzer.co.uk, www.kyzer.co.uk
You dont need a multitude of layers and effects to create a
good image, argues Den. All I did here was cut out the car
and boost colour by increasing contrast and colour saturation.
The background is a photo of the sunrise taken from the window
of an airplane. Den altered the colours via a Hue/Saturation layer
so it would better match the tones of the car. The two images
had different levels of noise, too, so I had to blur the background
slightly and then add noise, so that the transition between car
and sky appeared seamless.
Downunder
ARTIST: Den Cops
Email: den@kyzer.co.uk, www.kyzer.co.uk
Here, I had to deal with the areas around the eyes and
anywhere not covered in black makeup, explains Den. In Hue/
Saturation, he desaturated the flesh tones and then retouched
the face with a little airbrushing to matte the skin. The filaments
effect is a photograph of ink drops in water, he adds. Once
placed, the two elements had to be colour-adjusted to blend in
with each other. I painted the tear on afterwards.
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Egg Boat and
Elastic iMac
ARTIST: Marcel Wiegers (Fris Design)
EMAIL: mrzl74@gmail.com, www.fris-design.nl
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Helpdesk
Our resident imaging uncle deals with a host of Photoshop dilemmas, from
cropping conundrums, through to handy key commands and Easter eggs
BY KARL FOSTER
CROPPING CAPER
I take a few digital photos and enhance them
in Photoshop. What puzzles me is cropping
them correctly for print. I have a couple of
photo printers, one for 6x4s and one that
prints at A4, but I find it a hassle getting
cropped images to match the aspect ratio of
the stock. Its usually a case of making my
best guess, then trimming the image to size
using the Canvas Size dialog, which is timeconsuming. Have you any advice on making
accurate crops more efficiently?
James Hanson, Macclesfield
There is a quick and easy means of forcing the Crop tool to
maintain a fixed aspect ratio as you drag it across an image,
and its also possible to set the print resolution as you go
typically to a value of 300dpi. Open the image you wish to
print at, say, 6x4, access the Crop tool and click on the icon
that appears at the top left of Photoshops interface. Youll find
a drop-down list of cropping presets, at the top of which is
6x4 at 300dpi. Thisll force the Crop tool to match the aspect
ratio of the paper as you drag. You can also create custom
presets should you ever need to print on other paper sizes.
Go to the Histogram
palettes Expanded
view to access the
option to define
which layers are
included in the
histogram display
PHOTO COMPOSITES
Having seen some excellent examples of
composite photos on the Internet, I thought
Id give it a go myself. Results have been
poor, however. Im fairly proficient at cutting
out, usually with a vector path, but when an
item is placed against a background, it looks
stuck-on. Ive tried burning in shadow, but it
still doesnt sit well. Have you any tips to make
composite photos look more realistic?
HISTOGRAM HELP
I create a lot of multi-layered documents in
Photoshop and rely on the Histogram palette
to ensure the tonal range of each document
is fully optimised. But are the values shown by
the histogram applicable to every layer in the
image? It would help to be able to switch
between the two so I can check each layer
individually and the composition as a whole.
Graham Brown, Brighton
Adding shade is a good ploy, but also ensure the lighting and
tonality of the new element matches the background. Choose
elements with the same direction and temperature of light
as the background. You can marry them up further by going
to Image>Adjustments>Match Color. Set the background as
the source, then use the Color Options sliders to match the
colour characteristics of the cut-out with the background.
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SNAPZ PROBLEM
In my work, I have to take a lot of screengrabs
of Photoshop, but I find that it keeps locking
up and my copy of Snapz Pro bombs out,
which means force-quitting Photoshop or
rebooting entirely. Is there a stability issue
with this software combination? Im running
CS2 on a Mac G5 with OS X 10.4.3. It only
seems to have started happening since I
upgraded the Mac.
Adam Farmer, Nottingham
You dont mention which version of Snapz Pro youre using,
but it would be very much worth your while to visit the
publishers website (www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/
snapzprox) and download the latest version, which is 2.0.2.
Its a free upgrade to users of Snapz Pro X 2 and is optimised
for use with Mac OS X Tiger. Both stills and video capture
versions have been updated and, from our tests, they appear
to work fine with Photoshop CS2.
TOOL TIPS
I frequently use keyboard commands to
access various Photoshop facilities, but find
the Toolbox a bit of a bother. Many of the
Toolbox icons have fly-out menus offering a
list of tools, all of which are accessible with
the same keypress. So if the tool Im after isnt
already showing in the box, I have to resort to
using the menus. Is there any way of getting
around this?
Peter Walker, London
Yes there is, and you can use your beloved keypresses to do it.
Hold down Shift and press the appropriate letter key. Youll
find that with each keypress, the tool selection will cycle
through the menu. Unfortunately, this doesnt work for the
anchor point conversion tools in the Pen tool menu, but you
probably already know the key commands for converting the
Pen in the work area.
Create fake italic text with any font on the system via the Character palettes fly-out menu
FAUX FUN
I read one of your magazines tips about
creating outline text from any font and
wondered if you could help me with another
typographical conundrum. Many of the fonts
in my copy of Photoshop CS dont show up
as having italic versions, which is a bit of a
problem for me. Should I rasterize the text
and distort it to create a fake italic effect, or is
there a better way of doing this?
Andrew Majors, Bristol
There is a way of creating bold and italic type from fonts that
lack italic versions, although its not immediately apparent.
Create some text with the font you plan to use and bring up
the Character palette from the Window menu, if its not
already open. Select the text for italicising and click at the top
right of the palette. Youll see an entry labelled Faux Italic in
the fly-out menu. Select it and see your text lean over.
MULTIPLE PROCESSORS
You can cycle between the Pen and Freeform Pen tools by
holding down Shift and pressing P
MERLIN, BEGONE!
When I press the Alt key in Photoshop and
go to Palette Options in the Layers palette, a
little graphic of a wizard pops up with the
heading Merlin Lives. Underneath is a button
labelled Begone which, when clicked,
makes him disappear. Whats that about?
Sarah Matterson, Bournemouth
Thatll be an Easter egg. There are various ones in different
versions of Photoshop and theyre fun to find. The Photoshop
programmers put them in for amusement.
HELPDESK
CALL FOR QUESTIONS
Want help with your Photoshop problems?
Then let our team of experts sort you out.
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INSIDER
INFO
Insider
Info
The power of
Camera Raw 3
ince its initial release as a plug-in for Photoshop 7, Adobe Camera Raw has
been a revolutionary tool for processing digital Raw photos. With the
release of version 3, Adobe raises the bar even higher.
Arguably the single biggest improvement to Adobe Camera Raw is the ability to
process multiple Raw files simultaneously. Now when two or more Raw files are
opened, theyre displayed as thumbnails down the left-hand side of the Camera Raw
dialog. With multiple files selected, any edits you make even panning and zooming
are applied simultaneously to each photo in the selection. Selecting files in the
Thumbnails panel is analogous to selecting them in Bridge or Finder/Explorer. Simply
use the Shift key for contiguous and Cmd/Ctrl for non-contiguous selections. You can
even rank and label select files inside the Camera Raw dialog.
ON THE DISC
Youll find all the files you need to complete this
tutorial (BackgroundRight.psd, BackgroundLeft.psd,
Banner.psd, FooterBackground.psd, Tabs.psd,
TabsBackground.psd and WebInterface.psd, as well
as an Optimized_Output folder, featuring all the
graphic elements used for this tutorial) on Disc A.
OUR EXPERT
Trevor Morris
B
A
THE INTERFACE: New tools and features ensure that Adobe Camera Raw 3 is now faster and more efficient than ever.
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Scripting
Photoshop
OUR EXPERT
Trevor Morris
Installing scripts
Installing scripts is much the same as
installing any other preset. First, copy the
script into the Presets/Scripts subfolder:
Mac: <hard drive>/Applications/
Adobe Photoshop CS2/Presets/Scripts/
PC: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe
Photoshop CS2\Presets\Scripts\
After you quit and restart Photoshop,
the scripts will appear in the File>Scripts
submenu (in alphabetical order).
Running scripts
To run a script, choose it from the File>
Scripts submenu, or choose File>Scripts>
Browse to locate and run scripts that
dont appear in the Scripts menu. You can
also run scripts (or actions) automatically
based on an event, eg on startup, opening
a document or creating a new document.
To define an event-based script, go to
File>Scripts>Script Events Manager. Turn
on the Enable Events To Run Scripts/
Actions checkbox, and pick an event in
the Photoshop Event drop-down. Select
Script, and pick the desired script in the
drop-down (or choose Browse at the
bottom). Press Add to add the event to
the Event List. Finally, hit Done to apply
all changes and enable the event.
To remove an event, select it in the
Event List and press Remove; hit Remove
All to remove all events from the Event
List. To disable events without removing
them, turn off Enable Events To Run
Scripts/Actions. Press Done to apply.
Learn by example
For a better understanding of scripting,
check out the many resources installed
by default in the following locations:
Mac: <hard drive>/Applications/
Adobe Photoshop CS2/Scripting Guide/
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INSIDER
INFO
The Manager
Keep current
Why JavaScript?
Although you can write Photoshop scripts using JavaScript, AppleScript or
VisualBasic, JavaScript has two advantages: its platform- independent (ie works
on both Mac and PC), and many web designers are already familiar with it.
Additional resources
Below is a selection online resources dedicated to sharing scripts and
information about scripting:
/ Adobe Photoshop Scripting Forum http://tinyurl.com/afncy
/ Adobe Studio Exchange Photoshop Scripts
http://share.studio.adobe.com/axBrowseSubmit.asp?t=74
/ Working With Photoshop Scripts (PhotoshopSupport.com)
www.photoshopsupport.com/tutorials/jennifer/photoshop-scripts.html
/ Photoshop Scripting using JavaScript (Tranberry.com)
www.tranberry.com/photoshop/photoshop_scripting/index.html
/ Scripts for Photoshop CS and Photoshop CS2 (Trevor Morris)
http://user.fundy.net/morris/?photoshop28.shtml
/ Photoshop Scripting Community Forum (PS-Scripts)
www.ps-scripts.com/bb/
/ Photoshop CS Scripting (Andrew Hall)
http://ah-photo.com/photoshop-scripts/index.html
/ CS User Interface Builder 1.0 (WYSIWYG GUI builder for Photoshop/Bridge)
www.jkozniewski.com/tools/csuib.html
(CSUIB 2.0 alpha: www.jkozniewski.com/tools/CSUIB_2.0a.zip)
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books
Erotique Digitale: The Art Of Erotic Digital Photography
Focal Easy Guide To Photoshop CS2, The
How To Cheat In Photoshop
Photoshop Masking & Compositing
Pixel Surgeons: Extreme Manipulation
Photoshop CS2 Book For Digital Photographers, The
Photoshop CS2 For Windows & Macintosh
Photoshop CS2: Up To Speed
Photoshop Filter Effects Cookbook
Photoshop LAB Color
Adobe Photoshop CS2 one-on-one
Digital Imaging: Essential Skills
Digital SLR Handbook. The
Photoshop Blending Modes Cookbook
Photoshop Photo Effects Cookbook
088
088
088
088
088
089
089
089
089
089
090
090
090
090
090
plug-ins
091
091
091
091
091
091
DesignsByMark
Eyes On Design
N-Sane
Phong
Photoshop Caf
Planet Photoshop
092
092
092
092
092
092
20/20 Color MD
3D Invigorator
ColorTheory Pro
Deep Paint 3D
Digitalizer
PhotoFreebies
Primatte Chromakey 2
Shadow Filter
093
093
093
093
093
093
093
093
typography
Download Free Fonts
FontFile
Font Garden
Font Pool, The
Identifont
Linotype
094
094
094
094
094
094
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resources
books
Further reading
Erotique Digitale:
The Art of Erotic Digital Photography
How To Cheat
In Photoshop
Author: Steve Caplin
Publisher: Sybex
Price: 24.99
ISBN: 0-240-51985-X
Web: www.focalpress.com
Photoshop Masking
& Compositing
Rating:
2/5
Recom
mends
3/5
3/5
mends
Recom
5/5
4/5
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Photoshop CS2:
Up to Speed
Author: Ben Wilmore
Publisher: Peachpit Press
Price: 17.99
ISBN: 03211330501
Web: www.peachpit.com
mends
Recom
5/5
Photoshop Filter
Effects Cookbook
Rating:
3/5
resources
Further reading
4/5
3/5
4/5
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resources
Digital Imaging:
Essential Skills
Further reading
Adobe Photoshop CS2
one-on-one
Rating:
4/5
Photoshop Photo
Effects Cookbook
Author: Tim Shelbourne
Publisher: Ilex
Price: 17.95
ISBN: 1-904705-61-8
Web: www.ilex-press.com
mends
Recom
Reco
mme
nds
5/5
Photoshop Blending
Modes Cookbook For
Digital Photographers
Author: John Beardsworth
Publisher: Ilex
Price: 17.95
ISBN: 1-904705-69-5
Web: www.ilex-press.com
5/5
5/5
4/5
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resources
stock art
ArtBitz
Take stock
Web: www.artbitz.com
Shutterstock
Web: www.shutterstock.com
3/5
Illustration Works
3/5
Acclaim Images
Web: www.acclaimimages.com
Web: www.illustrationworks.com
4/5
4/5
InMagine
Laughing Stock
Web: www.laughing-stock.com
4/5
Web: www.inmagine.com
5/5
Recom
mends
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resources
websites
Catch it online
Phong
Planet Photoshop
Web: www.phong.com
Web: www.planetphotoshop.com
5/5
DesignsByMark
Web: www.designsbymark.com
3/5
N-Sane
Web: www.n-sane.net
ds
men
m
o
Rec
Rating:
4/5
Photoshop Caf
Web: www.photoshopcafe.com
4/5
Eyes on Design
Web: www.eyeondesign.net
5/5
4/5
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resources
plug-ins
4/5
Deep Paint 3D
Developer: Right Hemisphere
Price: $595 (334)
Web: www.righthemisphere.com
5/5
Primatte Chromakey 2
Although Photoshop offers built-in tools to
help with the cut-outs, some materials are
tricky to excise so most imageers shoot
their subjects in front of a bright blue or
green screen, then digitally remove the
block of solid colour in post, using a
dedicated tool like Primatte Chromakey.
Primatte Chromakey 2 is the professional
choice for creating precise cuts from coloured
backgrounds. It may not be cheap, but the
results are uniformly spectacular. 5
5/5
3D Invigorator
Developer: Zaxwerks
Price: $49 (27)
Web: www.zaxwerks.com
Developer: Panopticum
Price: $25 (14)
Web: www.panopticum.com
4/5
3/5
Rating:
4/5
20/20 Color MD
Shadow Filter
Developer: Phototune
Price: $49.95 (29)
Web: www.phototune.com
Rating:
PhotoFreebies
Digitalizer
reating convincing
shadow effects in
Photoshop can be one of the
trickiest of design duties, so
its nice to know that the
boffins at Andromeda
Software have made the
whole process much easier
with the innovative Shadow Filter. Billed as one of the most
advanced shadowing plug-ins currently available for
Photoshop, this friendly tool enables you to quickly and
effortlessly generate realistic shadow effects from 2D
image elements.
Its powerful virtual camera and perspective-correction
technology ensures that realist results are a given, no matter how
complex the object throwing the shadow. But before you write it
off as sounding too complicated, the software features both
novice and advanced modes to ensure that you can obtain
perfect drop-shadows, no matter what your level of proficiency.
Very impressive. 5
Rating:
4/5
3/5
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resources
typography
Its not just what you say, its how you say it
Perfect fonts
FontFile
Web: www.fontfile.com
Web: www.fontpool.com
3/5
Rating:
4/5
Linotype
Web: www.linotype.com
Rating:
Font Garden
Web: www.fontgarden.com
3/5
Identifont
Web: www.identifont.com
4/5
Reco
mme
nds
3/5
5/5
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