In this second installment we’ll take the pattern created in

Complex Repeating patterns Part I

and use it to create a heavy damask fabric by adding layer styles and a few unique layers.

If you didn’t download the source file for Part I and want to follow along simply download .pat file

here

. Install the pattern by choosing Edit>Preset Manager from the main menu, choose Patterns from the drop-down-menu and press the Load button on the right hand side of the dialog. Navigate to wherever you saved the downloaded .pat file, select it and press OK to load the pattern into Photoshop.

Now that the pattern is loaded lets go ahead and open a new document in Photoshop (mine is 540×400px at 72ppi). Although the dimensions of your file don’t matter, if you’re using a higher resolution you’ll need to make slight adjustments to the layer styles we apply along the way.

By default the background layer of a new Photoshop document is locked. Double click on the

Background

layer and rename it to unlock it (I usually just rename it

Background

again but you can call it Elmo or George if you’d like).

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The first item of business is somehow get our pattern onto the stage where we can work with it. You could choose Edit>Fill from the main menu and fill the layer with the pattern, but you’d loose some of the valuable adjustments that are gained by using a Layer Style to add the pattern instead, so we’re going to do it that way instead.

Control-Click (PC: Right-Click) on the

Background

layer in the Layers palette and choose Blending Options from the menu. Select Pattern Overlay from the list of style options on the left, choose the pattern we loaded into Photoshop in Step 1 (it should be the last pattern in the Pattern Picker).

One look at the stage will tell you that the pattern (at least for this document size) is far too large, and here’s where using a Layer Style comes in handy… Take the Scale slider at the bottom of the Pattern Overlay style options box and slide it down to 50%. Here’s another little tip for you – if the pattern isn’t set on the stage the way you like it, just click and drag it on the stage to a position that’s more pleasing before closing the Layer Styles dialog box. Once it looks the way you want press OK to commit the style.

(*note: I’ve found that the Scale slider in the Pattern Overlay style dialog works best at even divisions of 100%, so 75%, 50%, 25% and 12.5% will yield the clearest and least pixelated results.)

Now we have the pattern added to the background but we don’t have any way to work directly with the pattern itself. To solve this problem we’ll now move the pattern onto it’s own layer. Control-Click (PC: Right-Click) on the layer style icon inside the

Background

layer and choose Create Layer from the menu. This will take the layer style we just applied and break it into layers that are clipped to the

Background

layer. In this case it creates a new layer above the

Background

layer called

Background’s Pattern Fill

.

We don’t actually want this new layer clipped to the

Background

layer, so lets release the clipping by Control-Clicking (PC: Right-Click) on the

Background’s Pattern Fill



layer and choosing Release Clipping Mask.

Now we’ve got our document setup and are ready to start adding the styles that will create the look and feel of our heavy damask fabric. Lets start with adding some color and and texture to the

Background

layer.

Click on the background layer in the Layers palette to select it as the working layer. Change the foreground color in the Tools bar to something nice and subtle, anything except purple is fine… by now you know my rule about purple. I chose a nice blue color #30505d. Press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill the

Background

layer with the pretty new color and add the following Pattern Overlay layer style.

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The pattern used here is called Gauze

After adding the color and pattern overlay to the

Background

layer this is what my document looks like so far.

Click on the

Background’s Pattern Fill



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layer in the Layers palette to select it as the working layer and add the following two Layer Styles. By adding a different Pattern Overlay and a slight Bevel and Emboss we can make the pattern look as if it stands off the base fabric and is heavier and darker. These two layer styles are both rather subjective and you can get cool results playing around with the settings, patterns and blend modes of each so don’t be afraid to experiment.

Here are my style settings. Be careful to check each setting and slider as many of them have been adjusted.

Again here is what my document looks like after adding the Pattern Overlay and Bevel and Emboss to the

Background’s Pattern Fill



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layer.

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With our texture and color added we can now select an area to define as a repeating pattern just like we did in

Part I

(Steps 13-14) by setting guides at each edge of the repeating pattern. It helps to really zoom-in on the pattern so that you can see each pixel to make each guide exact.

Using guides to define the pattern make sure that any areas that are excluded on one side of the pattern are included on the opposite side.

Once you think you’ve got your guides in the right place, copy the pattern area, open a new document and using duplicate layers mock-up the pattern to make sure all sides align correctly.

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Once you’re sure your guides are in the right place make a selection of the pattern and choose Edit>Define Pattern from the main menu. Your new pattern will now appear in the Pattern Picker ready to use in your next project.

At this point I’d recommend saving your file incase you decided you want to change anything on it later. Simply filling the background layer with a different color will change the coloring of the entire fabric pattern and you can save that pattern for future use as well.

In the download at the end of the lesson I’ve included a .pat file with the basic pattern as well as a blue and red version for your use. I hope you’ve learned something useful!

It seems like everywhere I look these days designers are using more and more handmade objects in their work. From pencil sketches and fabric scans to paper scraps and household odds and ends these items are making their way into our work. In this Photoshop tutorial you’ll learn how to create a retail “hang tag”.

As always I recommend using a little reference material when you’re creating something from scratch that actually exists in the physical world. For today’s lesson I’m using two pieces I found at

iStockPhoto

, one for the card-stock background and one for the hang tag. By entering the item ID into the iStockPhoto search you can pull up the exact images I’m using.

In this lesson we’ll be using a photo of actual card-stock for the project. If you’d like to learn how to create this effect from scratch check out my

Cardboard And Torn Paper Business Card

tutorial.

Our first step will be to organize these items on the stage. I’ve merged the reference tag from iStock with the background layer for convenience. (The .PSD file at the end of the lesson will contain both original comp pieces from iStock). I’ve also rotated the card-stock background.

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Lets go ahead and create the shape of our tag by tracing the outline of the reference tag with the pen tool. This will be easy since the outline of the tag is all straight lines. Press the P key to invoke the pen tool and click your way around the outside of the tag until you end up back at your start point.

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(*note: This is easier if you zoo in on the tag for a better view.)

Before we go any further lets click over to the Paths tab in the Layers palette (or by choosing Window>Paths from the main menu) and lets name our path. The reason for this is that if we create a new working path now without naming the one we just created we risk loosing the initial path because if we don’t name it Photoshop assumes we’re done with it.

While we still have the Paths tab open and our

Main Tag Area

path selected lets also add the hole. Press the U key to invoke the custom shape tool, in the options bar at the top of Photoshop make sure that the tool is set to Paths, choose the Ellipse tool and make sure the Exclude Overlapping Path Areas icon is selected.

Holding down the Shift key to constrain the circle, click and drag a circular path onto the stage where the hole in the tag is.

Sometimes despite our best efforts to do things in the correct order Photoshop can have a mind of it’s own so lets double check and make sure this new circular path indeed has the Exclude Overlapping Paths option actually chosen. Press the A key to switch to the Direct Selection tool and take a look at the options bar at the top of Photoshop. Mine actually had defaulted to the Add To Shape Area option rather than retaining the Exclude Overlapping setting. If this is the case for you, just go ahead and click on the Exclude Overlapping Path Areas icon to switch it. We do this to make sure that the hole is actually cutout of the tag.

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Switch back to the layer tag and with the Direct Selection tool still selected click and drag around the entire path area to select both paths. Move the path over the top of the background texture and press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to invoke the Free Transform tool (yes it works with paths too). Make sure to hold the Shift key as you grab one of the corners of the transform box to constrain the path as you transform it to the size you want to use. hit the Return (PC: Enter) key when you’ve resized the path to commit the transformation.

We can convert the selected path to a selection by simply pressing Command-Return (PC: Ctrl-Enter) and then convert the selection to a layer mask by clicking the Add layer mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. (*note: make sure you’ve got the

Main Tag

layer selected before doing this or the layer mask won’t be applied to the right layer.)

While we’re on this

Main Tag

layer lets go ahead and add a couple of Layer Styles to it. Command-Click (PC: Right-Click) on the layer and choose Blending Options to bring up the Layer Styles dialog and add the following two styles.

Create a new layer above the

Main Tag

layer by clicking the Create New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette or by using the keyboard shortcut Command-Shift-N (PC: Ctrl-Shift-N), call this layer

Grommet

.

Press the M key to switch to the Marquee tool, use the fly out menu in the Tools bar to switch to the Elliptical Marquee tool or you can use the keyboard shortcut Shift-M (PC: Shift-M) to switch between Rectangular and Elliptical once the Marquee tool is selected. click and drag a selection where the reinforcement grommet will live around the hole in the tag.

Click the foreground swatch in the Layers palette and change the color to #706340 and click OK, then fill the selection with this new foreground color by pressing Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace).

Lets copy the layer mask from the

Main Tag

layer to the

Grommet

layer by holding down the Option (PC: Alt) key and clicking and dragging the layer mask (in the Layers palette) from the

Main Tag

layer to the

Grommet

layer. Lets also change the grommet’s layer Blend Mode to Multiply and lower the Fill opacity to 70%.

Just like we did in Step 9 lets go ahead and give the

Grommet

layer a few Layer Styles of it’s own.

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It’s time to add some string to our tag. We’ll do this by drawing a few separate paths and then stroking the path with a brush so lets first press the B key to switch to the Brush tool and we’re going to choose a round hard edged brush with a radius of 3 pixels.

Create a new layer called

String 1

. Change the foreground color to #735e47 and press the P key to switch to the pen tool. Using the pen tool click and drag a path onto the stage that will represent our first piece of string coming from the opening of the hole.

With the pen tool still selected Control-Click (PC: Right-Click) on the path and select Stroke Path. Choose Brush from the dialog and make sure Pen Pressure is not checked then click OK. Pressing Command-H (PC: Ctrl-H) when you’re finished will hide the path so you can see what you’ve done.

Repeat Steps 14-15 on a new layer called

String 2

.

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And one last time lets create a path and stroke it to create the loop that wraps from behind the tag around the two strings we just created. I’ll call this layer

String Loop

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. I’m going to draw this path overlapping the tag and we’ll trim it in Step 18.

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Press M to switch to the Marquee tool, make sure the Rectangular Marquee is selected and then click and drag a selection to the edge of the tag (where we need to cut our loop of string). Press Delete (PC: Backspace) to remove the overlapping string then deselect by pressing Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D).

To add a little more realism lets add a Drop Shadow, Bevel & Emboss and Pattern Overlay to our string. You can add these layer styles to any of the String layers and then by holding down the Option (PC: Alt) key you can click and drag the layer style from one layer to the next (just like we did with Layer Masks earlier) to add the same style to all 3 String layers.

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(*note: The Pattern Overlay is actually overkill for such a small piece of string, but if you’re creating this at 300ppi for a print project it will add the slightest bit of texture to the string and actually adds to the look nicely. Obviously at 300ppi you’ll need to adjust all the layer styles accordingly as well.)

Now that our tag is complete it’s time to put something on it. We’ll want to put the the graphics that will be on the hang tag just above the

Main Tag

layer and it’s a good idea to create clipping masks from all those layers back to the Main Tag layer so that any graphic that extends beyond the edges of the tag will retain the shape and edge effects of the tag itself.

I’ll start by throwing in the obligatory PSHERO star logo by creating a new layer just above the

Main Tag

layer and calling it

Star

. I’ve got the logo star saved as a custom shape so I’ll just throw it onto my layer and position it above the tag as desired. Then by Command-Clicking (PC: Right-Clicking) on the layer and choosing Create Clipping Mask I can use the

Main Tag

layer as a mask for the

Star

layer. I also switched the layer Blend Mode to Linear Burn and lowered the Fill opacity to 55% to make it look more like the star was printed onto the card.

(*note: By placing the star behind the

Grommet

layer which has Fill opacity to 70% I could see the star through the grommet, I didn’t like this look so I raised the Fill opacity of the

Grommet

layer back to 100% and lightened the color a little.)

I’ll repeat Step 20 a few more times adding text and a little bit of paint with a grunge brush to get to my final image, and yes, all this is included in the download at the end of the lesson. If you want more instruction on how to age and distress in Photoshop you should check out these tutorials:

Creating Old Paper With Custom Brushes



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Create An Old Envelope



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It seems like cool black and white photo effects are all the rage lately. Movie posters, magazine ads and album covers have all sported this effect with great results. In this Photoshop tutorial I’ll show you how to create this effect using channels.

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The first trick to this effect is to choose the right photo, one with a defined light source and lots of interest. The photo doesn’t have to start black and white, but you’ll need to convert your photo before we get started.

I’ve opened a new document and pasted the photo into it, creating a new layer above the default

Background

layer which is filled with white (also by default)

In the layers palette lets switch over to the channels tab.

(*note: For the sake of saving space some of these steps will display a cropped version of my image.)

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Now lets load the images Luminosity by holding down the Command (PC: Ctrl) key and clicking on the RGB thumbnail here in the channels palette. The luminosity is the measurement of white that each pixel holds, so by loading the luminosity we’ve effectively loaded only the “lightness” of the image.

Now lets add a new Alpha Channel by clicking the Create New Channel button at the bottom of the Channels palette. This will also select the new channel which will be called

Alpha 1

and hide the other channels by default.

Press the D key to reset the foreground and background colors to black and white respectively. Now lets fill the selection with white (which is the background color) by pressing Command-Delete (PC: Ctrl-Backspace). What you should end up with is something that looks exactly like the original image. Don’t release your selection just yet, we’ve got more to do with it.

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Next lets fill the opposite pixels with black. To do this choose Select>Inverse from the main menu or use the keyboard Command-Shift-I (PC: Ctrl-Shift-I) to invert the selection. Press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill the selection with black. This will effectively darken the blacks in the image.

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STOP! … I see you there, reaching for the Command-D to deselect! … Don’t do it! We’re not done with this selection yet. Gosh!

Lets invert the selection one last time just like we did before by choosing Select>Inverse or by using the keyboard shortcut you learned in Step 5.

Ok, now we’re going to fill the selection with white once again, but this time lets press the keyboard shortcut three (3) times to really blow out the whites. Hold down the Command (PC: Ctrl) key once again and hit Delete (PC: Backspace) three times. And now Mr. Smarty Pants, go ahead and desect by pressing Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D)

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At this point everything’s going to look a little washed out and won’t have much contrast, but not to worry, we’re about to fix that.

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While still in the Channels palette and with the

Alpha 1

channel selected press Command-L (PC: Ctrl-L) to bring up the Levels dialog box. Grab the far left arrow beneath the Levels histogram (this is the one that represents the black point of the image), drag it towards the right until the contrast returns to the image. This is a “to taste” adjustment, but I found that a setting of 60 worked nicely to restore my blacks to where they ought to be.

Now I’m going to press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to invoke the Free Transform function and enlarge and reposition my guy where I want him to be for my ad. The trick here is to choose a size and orientation that allows us to black out one side and white out the other. Finding the spot where black and white will connect is what’s coming next.

Now I’m going to grab the Brush tool by pressing the B key and then I’ll press X to switch my foreground and background colors, effectively making white the foreground color. With a variety of brush sizes I’m going to paint out all the remnants of black in the areas to the right of my figure as shown below.

I’ve found that using a round soft edged brush with an edge hardness of about 88% allows me to paint very close to my subject without lightening the edges of his form. Use the Bracket keys [ and ] to enlarge or shrink your brush as you work. You can also Zoom in and out by using the keyboard shortcut Command (PC: Ctrl) and the plus (+) and minus (-) keys. Holding down the Spacebar will give you the Hand tool and allow you to move around your zoomed image.

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Now that we’ve got the right side nice and white, lets press the X key to return black to it’s position as foreground color and using the same brushes and techniques blacken the left side of the figure. This is where a little imagination works wonders because you’ve got to find the spot where you’re going to break your figure out of the shadows and let his highlights start to come through.

It’s about time to get out of the Channels palette and back to our working document so lets load the Luminosity of our

Alpha 1

channel by holding down the Command (PC: Ctrl) key and clicking on the channels thumbnail in the Channels palette.

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Now click on the RGB composite channel at the top of the Channels palette to turn the standard channels back on and switch back to the Layers tab at the top of the palette. This will return us to our working document and surprisingly you’ll discover that nothing we’ve done has effected our original image.

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Currently we have the luminosity loaded as a selection, but what we really want here is the opposite (the shadows) loaded, so lets use what we’ve learned and choose Select>Inverse from the main menu to flip the selection.

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Create a new layer by pressing the Create a New Layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette and then fill the selection with black by pressing Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace). At this point we’re done with the selection, so go ahead and press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect.

At this juncture we’re finished with our original image, so lets go ahead and drag that layer to the trash. This leaves us with just the white background layer and the layer we just filled with black. The effect is now complete and you’re free to use either the white space to the right or the black space to the left to add copy or additional elements.

In this Photoshop tutorial I’ll show you how to create a Custom Brush using a folded piece of paper and then how to use that brush to create an old piece of paper.

To begin this tutorial I took a plain white piece of paper, folded it in fours and left it in my pocket for a few hours. Next I scanned the paper using the Grayscale setting on my scanner. Because the both the paper and the scanner back are white, I placed a dark colored magazine behind the paper giving the cool result of a little text showing through onto my scan as you can see below.

I’ve imported the scan into Photoshop directly from the scanner by using the File>Import dialog from the main menu and then placed the scan above a white background layer. (*note: You can make a Custom Shape from ANYTHING you can bring into Photoshop from photos to line drawings.)

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No matter what you’re trying to make into a Custom Brush, it will need to be black and white. If you’re using a color photo or image, you can quickly discard the color information by choosing Image>Adjustments>Desaturate from the main menu.

It is important to understand that when we create a Custom Brush anything on the stage that is white will be transparent when we convert the image to a brush, black will be opaque and the gray areas in between will be partially transparent.

Choose the Rectangular Marquee tool from the Tools bar by pressing the M key, then draw a selection around the area that you would like turn into your Custom Brush.

With the selection made, choose Edit>Define Brush Preset from the main menu, give the new brush a name and click OK. How easy was that? Your new brush has now been saved and if you switch to the Brush tool by pressing the B key and choose the brush drop down from the Brush Options menu at the top of Photoshop, you’ll see that the newly created brush has been added to the end of the list.

I can now delete the Scanned Paper layer from my document and get to work creating a new piece of paper.

Create a new layer called Paper Background and set the foreground and background colors in the Tools bar to #d3c29d and #b7a783 respectively. Press the M key to call up the Rectangular Marquee tool and since the standard aspect for a piece of paper is 8.5 x 11, we will set the constrain options for the Marquee tool to Fixed Aspect Ratio with a width of 11 and a height of 8.5.

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Now that we’ve got our colors selected and the Marquee tool setup, lets go ahead and drag a nice big selection onto the stage and fill it with the foreground color by pressing Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace).

With the selection still active choose Filter>Render>Clouds from the main menu. This will create a nice variant of color on our old paper using a mixture of the foreground and background colors we set in Step 4.

At this point it’s safe to deselect by pressing Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D).

We will now use an Inner Glow layer style to darken the edges of the paper.

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To call up the Layer Styles dialog you can either double click to the right of the layer name in the Layers palette, or Control-Click (PC: Right-Click) on the layer and choose Blending Options, then click on Inner Glow text on the left to add the following effect. Click OK when you’re done.

Add a new layer by clicking the Add New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette and name it

Folds

.

Now we’re going to use our new brush to create the folds and texture of the paper.

Press the D key to reset the foreground and background colors to black and white, then press the B key to switch to the Brush tool and from the Brush drop down at the top choose the new Folded Paper brush we created earlier. If you were following along at home you’ll now notice that the brush we created is oriented horizontally, but our paper is vertical. This problem can be solved easily by opening the Brushes palette from the main menu by choosing Window>Brushes. Click on Brush Tip Shape in the menu on the right and change the Angle to 90°.

Position the brush over the paper and use the bracket keys

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to enlarge or reduce the brush size until it’s just a few pixels larger than the paper size then simply click once to paint one instance of the brush onto the stage.

Next lets Control-Click (PC: Right Click) on the

Folds

layer and choose Create Clipping Mask. This will clip the

Folds

layer to the

Paper Background

layer and will effectively hide anything outside the papers area. The clipping mask also allows the Inner Glow layer style which was added to the

Paper Background

layer to apply to the

Folds

layer as well.

Now lets make the Folds layer blend correctly with the underlying layer by changing the blend mode to Color Burn and the layer’s Fill opacity to 40%.

An old piece of paper should have some blemishes around the edges so lets click back down to the

Paper Background

layer in the Layers palette to select it and then add a layer mask by clicking the Add layer mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. This will allow us to rough up the edges of the paper without actually erasing from the actual layer. When the layer mask is added you will notice that it is by default selected (*note: You can tell the layer mask is selected rather than the actual content of the layer because of the black brackets that appear around the icon of the layer mask.)

Press the B key to switch to the Brush tool, then choose the Chalk 60 pixels brush from the Brush Picker. This will be the rough edge brush I’ll be using to antique the edges of the paper.

With the foreground color set to black use the brush to paint black into little sections around the edge of the paper, effectively removing those areas from view. The black we paint onto the stage with the layer mask selected will be masked away.

With the

Paper Background

still selected, press the Create A New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to add a layer directly above it. Notice that the new layer is also clipped to the

Paper Background

layer just like the

Folds

layer.

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Press the X key to change the foreground color to white, then using the same brush with it’s opacity set to 30% paint around the worn edges with white to add a little dimension to the wear.

If you downloaded the grunge brushes from the

Create An Old Envelope

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tutorial you can use them here on a new layer called

Grunge

to add some nice watermarks and grungy effects to the paper. I used a blend mode of Color Burn and lowered the fill opacity to 22%.

Click back to the

Paper Background

layer and add a nice Drop Shadow layer style as shown below.

The last thing our paper needs is some writing. Click on the

Folds

layer (or whatever you called your top layer) and switch to the Type tool by pressing the T key. With the Type tool drag a rectangle onto the stage where the text on the paper should live then using a font like Bickham Script Pro or

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, type out your text.

Of course we’ll need to age the text to match the paper, and luckily we’ve already done most of the preparation. Change the layer blend mode to Color Burn and lower the opacity to 50%.

While still on your

Text

layer hold down the Command (PC: Ctrl) key and click on the thumbnail for the

Folds

layer to load the layer as a selection. This will create a selection using only the information contained on the

Folds



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Now simply click the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the layers palette to convert the selection into a Layer Mask that will instantly age the text consistent with the folds and wrinkles on the paper.

Because of the blend and opacity changes the text is now too light, so simply press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to duplicate the Text layer. This will double the effects of the Color Burn blend mode as well as effectively increase the density of the text creating a more convincing effect.

And there you have it, a nice effect produced by creating your own Photoshop Custom Brush. Nice work!

In this Photoshop tutorial we are going to explore some cool ways to use Quick Masks and the halftone Pattern filter. We will first examine the technique, then I’ll show you a few ways to apply it.

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Lets get started by opening a new document. For the sake of being on the same page just make sure you’re working at 72ppi so my filter settings will work the same for you later in the lesson.

Lets leave the background layer white for now and add 2 new layers by hitting the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. Name these layers

Shape

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and

halftone

respectively because I’ll be referring to the layers by names as we work.

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(*note: If your layers palette isn’t visible, you can open it by choosing Window>Layers from the main menu.)

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With the

Shape

layer selected lets draw an object on the stage. For my example I’m going to use the star I use in the PSHERO logo. I’ve made the star into a Custom Shape which I can now retrieve anytime I need to use it by choosing the Custom Shape tool from the tools bar and then selecting the star from the Custom Shape gallery as shown below. Be sure that the Fill Pixels icon is checked.

Now I’m going to choose a nice red as my foreground color (#6b120c) and click and drag my shape onto the stage. Remember that by holding down the Shift key you can constrain your shape.

Here’s a neat little trick if you ever want to center something to either to whole stage or to the center of any selection:

Press Command-A (PC: Ctrl-A) to select the entire canvas. Now switch to the move tool by pressing V. When you switch to the move tool, you will notice a new set of options appear at the top of Photoshop, a few of which are the Align commands. If you press Align Horizontal Centers and Align Vertical Centers icons, your shape will be moved to the exact center of the selection. If you didn’t already know that little trick, I bet you’re doing your happy dance about now… or maybe that’s just me.

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Ok, enough monkey business, lets get to the meat of our tutorial.

Holding down the Command (PC: Ctrl) key, click on the icon in the

Shape

layer in the Layers palette to load the shape as a selection. From the main menu choose Select>Modify>Expand and when the dialog box pops up enter 10 pixels and press OK. Now feather the selection by choosing Select>Modify>Feather from the main menu. Use a setting of 15 pixels and click OK. (*note: In Photoshop CS2 the feather option is in the main drop down under the Select header in the main menu. In CS3 it was moved to the Select>Modify sub-menu.)

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With the selection made, expanded and feathered it’s time to enter Quick Mask Mode by simply pressing the Q key on your keyboard. You’ll notice that everything outside our selection turns pink (because it’s masked) and that because we feathered the selection, the pink mask gradually dissipates as it enters the selection.

From the main menu choose Filter>Pixilate>Color halftone and set the Max Radius to 8 pixels and leave the other settings at their default (the default should be 108/162/90/45) and click OK. Now the area where we had our gradient before has been converted to a series of expanding dots (halftone).

Exit Quick Mask Mode by pressing the Q key again and instantly the area that was transparent during our masking process is converted into a selection. How awesome is that?

In the Layers palette click on the

Halftone

layer to select it. Press the D key on your keyboard to reset the foreground color to black and then fill the selection by pressing Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace)

Press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect. I’m also going to lower the Fill opacity of the Halftone layer to around 30% so the contrast is less harsh.

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Ok, now that you’ve got the technique down, lets try some other things. Below I’ve opened a photograph, duplicated the background layer which contained the photo and then filled the original background with white.

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Using the Rectangular Marquee tool (keyboard shortcut M) I drug out a nice rectangular selection. (*note: For this example I’m not going to be expanding or feathering the selection.)

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Now press Q to enter Quick Mask Mode, apply the exact same Color Halftone effect as before (*note: You can press Command-F (PC: Ctrl-F) to quickly apply the last filter you used.), then simply press Q again to exit Quick Mask Mode.

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Now instead of filling the selection with color, lets press the Create Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to convert the selection to a Layer Mask.

Add a little Drop Shadow and an Inner Glow with some creative settings…

And you have a creative little edge effect.

Try it around text! In this example I used the expand and feather technique from the first exercise.

And for my final example I created a Quick Mask with a Reflected Gradient from the center out, then used the Free Transform with Warp turned on in order to bend the halftone into the shape you see in the final image.

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(*note: Because of the broad nature of this tutorial I haven’t included a file for download.)

In this Photoshop tutorial I’ll show you how to create realistic reflections on water in your favorite photographs.

Let me begin by saying just a few things about this effect. First and foremost, this is one of those techniques that’s better kept to yourself when showing off your amazing photos to your friends and fellow photographers. For some reason, even in this day and age, the digital work a photographer does is looked down on as cheating by others… so mum’s the word.

Secondly, if you plan to show or print photos using this technique, make sure you go the distance to make the photo completely convincing. Any small inconsistencies will immediately give you away as an imposter, and lets face it, none of us want that.

So pick a photo with a nice straight (or at least relatively straight) waterline. If you’ve got a shoreline that has big jogs and variations this technique becomes much more tricky and often impossible. I chose this photograph I took in Slovenia a few years back. I’ve always liked the composition, but hated the rough water so much I never printed it.

The first thing I always do when working with a photograph is to duplicate the background layer by pressing Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J). Keep in mind that although you’re viewing a small web sized version of the photograph, I’m actually working on a full sized 300ppi image.

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With the background layer duplicated and the duplicate selected, lets break out the Rectangular Marquee tool (or the selection tool of your choice) and select all the water. The press Command-Shift-I (PC: Ctrl-Sift-I) to invert the selection (effectively selecting everything that’s not water)

Press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to duplicate only the selected area onto a new layer. Then lets go ahead and flip our new layer which we’ll name “Reflection 1″ upside down by choosing Edit>Transform>Flip Vertical from the main menu.

Now of course this won’t look right at all.

Grab the move tool by pressing V on your keyboard and while holding down the Shift key drag the inverted image down until it’s positioned in where the reflection should go.

As you can see by the little wedge of blue that’s exposed between the actual image and my new reflection, either my photo wasn’t taken exactly level or the shoreline drifts a little bit. I’m going to go with the shoreline issue because of course I never shoot crooked.

If we turn off the two background layers (“Background” and “Background copy”) by clicking the little eye icons next to them in the Layers palette so we can see only the reflection layer, I can then select and delete that little wedge of water that remains in my “Reflection 1″ layer. I used the Polygonal Lasso tool, but you could just as easily use the Eraser tool with a hard edged brush and a little patience.

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Turn the background layers back on now and you’ll notice that we still have that wedge of blue showing through on the layers below. So lets grab the Transform Tool from the main menu, but lets make sure and select Warp (Edit>Transform>Warp).

Then simply drag the points on the corners and the bend handles of the warp tool until the reflection meets the shoreline everywhere. In my case, because I was able to cut out the water in a straight line, I could simply use the Free Transform tool and drag the left corner up by holding the Option (PC: Alt) key and get a pretty good match.

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Things are beginning to look like they should, but be careful. Water is never the same color as the world it reflects because of it’s depth and the ability of water to reflect the sky as well, so lets add a slight blue tint to the water now.

Create a new layer at the top of the document and call it “Blue”. Fill the layer with a nice light blue like #5a9cb2.

Now, because we only want this blue tint to effect the reflection we could create a simple Clipping Mask to the “Reflection 1″ layer, but in this case we’re going to use a layer mask instead. Hold down the Command (PC: Ctrl) key and click on the thumbnail of the “Reflection 1″ layer to load it as a selection, then click the Add layer mask icon at the bottom of the layers palette.

Change the Layer blend mode to Color and the Fill opacity to around 30% to create a nice blue undertone in the water.

Lets add a little more realism to our water now by clicking back on the “Reflection 1″ layer and pressing Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to duplicate the layer. Call this one “Reflection 2″ and click the Lock Transparent Pixels button at the top of the Layers palette. We lock the pixels because we’re about to add a blur to this layer and we don’t want the blur to spill over onto the other layers.

Choose Filter>Blur>Motion Blur from the main menu, set the angle to 0 degrees and the Distance to 20 pixels (if you’re working on a lower resolution image you may want to reduce the Distance until things just look blurred a little). Press OK. Now repeat the blur by simply pressing Command-F (PC: Ctrl-F).

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(*note: pressing Command-F (PC: Ctrl-F) is a great short cut to reapply the last filter used.)

Obviously this blur won’t be consistent from the shore to the bottom of the photograph, so add a layer mask and grab the Linear Gradient tool set to Foreground to Background, hit the D key to set the reset the foreground and background to black and white, then simply drag a gradient from the shoreline to the bottom of the document. This will make the reflection still look crisp against the shore but as the water comes towards us, the reflection will get a little more blurry.

Create a new layer above the “Reflection 2″ layer and call it “Gradient 1″. Next lets duplicate the layer mask we have on the “Blue” layer onto the new “Gradient 1″ layer by holding down the Option (PC: Alt) key and simply click and drag the Layer Mask from the “Blue” layer to the “Gradient 1″ layer.

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Press G to invoke the Gradient tool once again, choose Foreground to Transparent from the gradient options and drag a gradient from the bottom of the document up to the shoreline. Change the Layer blend mode to Luminosity and the Fill transparency to 40%.

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You can experiment with gradients coming from the shoreline down and perhaps a highlight reflected gradient in the middle of the water, but at this point the reflection is convincing to the eye and the photograph looks much better than the original.

When I’m working to develop a technique like this one, I always have several real life references (ie. actual photos with reflections) to pull ideas from to create the most realistic and true to life representation possible.

You know that I usually don’t include a .PSD download in my

PHOTO EFFECTS

category, but because of the many layers, layer masks and blend modes used in this tutorial I’m including a low resolution version of this file for download at the bottom of the lesson. Enjoy!

At this point you can either be satisfied with the level of realism and a nice glassy lake, or you could take it a step further and create a displacement map to mimic the tiny waves and water reflections (which we’ll save for another tutorial), and end up with this result.

In this Photoshop tutorial you will learn how to make the Transformers movie text effect while learning to create 3D text and apply a series of layer styles.

Because this is a text effect will attempt to replicate the original Transformers text, it’s important to have the right font. I did a little looking and found a font called SF Transbotics at

dafont.com

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(*note: I’ve included the font files in the exercise download at the bottom of the lesson). Go download and install the font before you proceed.. unless of course you’d prefer to use a less cool font.. and in that case, lets get started. (*note: You may need to restart Photoshop once you’ve installed the font on your system to get it to appear in the Photoshop fonts list.)

Open a new document (mine is 540×300 at 72ppi). Press the D key to reset the foreground and background colors to black and white respectively then press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill the background layer with black.

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Change the foreground to white by pressing X to switch the foreground and background colors, then select the Text tool from the Tools bar by pressing the T key and type out your text in a nice large size. (*note: Center your text side to side and top to bottom.. I’ve only shifted my text in the example to show the Character palette settings I used.

In the original Transformers logo the letters T and F extend below the rest of the word type. In order to do this we need to rasterize the test by right-clicking (Mac: Conrol-Click) on the text layer in our layers palette and choosing Rasterize Type from the menu. This turns our layer from editable type into a standard graphic.

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With the text rendered as a graphic we can use the Rectangular Marquee tool (activated by pressing the M tool) to select the bottom of the T and F letters and by using the Free Transform tool to lengthen the bottom of the letters.

(*note: to get both letters exactly the same I placed a guide below the text.)

With the letters extended you can clear your guide by selecting View>Clear Guides from the main menu.

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Next we are going to create a 3D effect by adding a bevel and emboss to our text layer and then duplicating and nudging that layer repeatedly.

First, lets add a layer style. Double click to the right of the layer name in the layers palette to bring up the Layer Style dialog (*note: you can also right click (Mac: Control-Click) on the layer and choose Blending Options to bring up the Layer Style dialog.)

In the column at the left of the Layer Styles dialog click bevel and Emboss and apply the following settings then click OK to apply the layer style.

By adding the bevel and Emboss layer style we have created the edge shading that will be visible in our next step.

To create the illusion of 3D text we will now duplicate our text layer multiple times, each time shifting the text up and right.

To duplicate the selected layer simply press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) or select Layer>Duplicate Layer from the main menu. This will create a new layer above the selected layer.

To shift the text, make sure you have the move tool selected by pressing the V key, then using the arrows on your keyboard press the up key and then the right key each one time. Repeat the duplicate and move process 3 more times until you have a total of 5 layer copies.

At this point I’d recommend merging the bottom 4 layers of our 5 layer 3D set by clicking on the second layer from the top, holding down the Shift key and then selecting the bottom layer in the set, effectively selecting all 4 layers that comprise the 3D edge. Press Command-E (PC: Ctrl-E) to merge the selected layers.

We don’t actually want Bevel and Emboss layer style on the top layer, so right click (Mac: Control-Click) on the layer style icon of the top layer and choose Clear Layer Style. I also double-clicked on the layer names and changed the names to “TRANSFORMERS Top” and “TRANSFORMERS 3D”.

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With the “TRANSFORMERS Top” layer selected we are going to add a series of 5 layer styles that will give the layer it’s aged stone look. I am going to place each of the layer styles in series here so all you need to do is go down the list and apply them. Anything out of the ordinary will be pointed out in the yellow boxes.

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Right click to the right of the layer name and apply the following 5 styles. Click OK when all the styles have been added.

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The document should how look like the one below.

Looking at the effect so far it becomes obvious that the 3D edges are too light. To solve this problem, click on the “TRANSFORMERS 3D” layer to select it, then bring up the Levels dialog by pressing Control-L (PC: Ctrl-L). Drag the left hand slider in towards the middle until the 3D edges look right.

For the final image I just added a reflection by duplicating the text and 3d layers, merging them, flipping them vertically, dropping the opacity to 30% and then adding a gradient layer mask.

In this Photoshop tutorial I will show you how to create a contemporary baby announcement using a few basic clipping masks, the free transform tool and a few carefully placed guides.

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The idea here was to use 5 photos of this little crumb snatcher to create a simple yet elegant baby announcement for a friend to send out to all her friends and family. She decided to print the announcements at home and gave me her desired size, which was 4.25×5.5 inches. At 300ppi this makes a document 1275×1650. If you’re following along at home, go ahead and create your document now.

Press the D key to reset the foreground and background colors in your Tools palette, then press Option-Delete (PC: Option-Backspace) to fill the background layer with black.

I’ve decided I want 4 photos placed in equal sized squares across the top of the invitation, so lets do a little math to figure out the sizes. 1275 pixels wide divided by 4 gives us 318.75 … but lets just call it 319. What this means is that each square along the top will need to be 319×319 pixels. To make this easy, grab the Rectangular Marquee tool from the Tools palette (or just press the M key). In the options bar across the top of the screen choose Fixed Size from the Style drop-down menu, then enter your width and height as 319 px. Remember the “px” after your numbers.

(*note: by default the increments in the width and height fields are the same as the increments set in your rulers, press Command-R (PC: Ctrl-R) to pull up the rulers, and if they’re not set to pixels, right click on the ruler and choose pixels.)

Now that we have our Rectangular Marquee tool set to the exact size we want, click on the upper left corner of the stage and set the first square selection. If the selection isn’t exactly in the upper left corner simply drag it up and left until it snaps to the document edges.

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Place guides at the bottom and left of the selection by clicking on the left side ruler and dragging a guide to the right until it snaps to the right side of your selection, then do the same from the top ruler to the bottom of your selection.

Click on the foreground color in the layers palette and change the color to something other than black (to make it visible against the background layer I chose red). Create a new layer in the layers palette by clicking on the new layer icon at the bottom of the palette. (*note: it’s just to the left of the little trash can icon and looks like a piece of paper with one corner folded back.) The new layer will be named “Layer 1″ by default, but to keep our file organized lets double click on the layers name to rename it “Mask 1″

Now fill the selection with your newly selected foreground color by pressing Command-Delete (PC: Ctrl-Backspace).

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Good job! Lets make the other 3 squares in exactly the same fashion.

With your cursor inside the selection (*note: the cursor will change to an arrow with a selection attached) click and drag the selection to the right until it snaps into place in the second position. You’ll only need to drag a single guide to the right side, then repeat. (note: You don’t need to do a 4th guide because you’ll be at the end of the document.)

Create a new layer, name it and fill it with color, then repeat the process until all 4 squares are filled. It may help you to fill each new square with a different color to be able to tell them apart rather than creating a big red bar across the top of the document. These squares will act as Clipping masks later in the exercise so their color doesn’t matter at all.

When all 4 squares are finished, press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect.

It is good Photoshop practice to name each layer properly and although this file won’t have a huge number of layers it’s a good practice to get into, plus I will be referencing layers by name later.

In the layers palette click back to the layer named “Mask 1″ and then open the first baby photo you’d like to use.

With the baby photo open, click and drag the photo into the working document. It will likely be far too big for the little square, but don’t worry, we’ll deal with that in a moment. First lets rename this new layer “Photo 1″ (See how Mask 1 and Photo 1 are named alike). Great! Now lets use our “Mask 1″ layer as a clipping mask. Right click (Mac: Ctrl-Click) on the “Photo 1″ layer and select Create Clipping Mask from the menu. You will notice that the “Photo 1″ layer is now indented in the layers palette with a little arrow pointing down to the “Mask 1″ layer. Now all we see is the area of the photo that overlaps our mask.

(*note: You can also create a clipping mask by holding down the Option (PC: Alt) key and clicking your mouse on the divider line between the layers you wish to link. You will notice that your cursor will change to two overlapping circles.)

Now that our photo is clipped to its mask we can resize it to fit the space visually. The nice thing about using a layer mask rather than resizing and cropping the photo is that we always have the option of moving the photo within the mask area at any time, or adding a different photo in it’s place with very little effort.

Press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to invoke the Free Transform tool. You will notice that there are now bounding lines around your photo and small boxes present at all corners and in the middle of each side. These boxes are your transform controls. (*note: Sometimes the canvas area is too small to show the edges of the photo and the associated transform controls, if this happens simply press Command-0 (PC: Ctrl-0 … that’s a ZERO) to resize the document to show all the transform controls.) Be sure you hold down the shift key to constrain the photo as you click and drag the corners towards the center until the photo fits the way you’d like it to.

When the photo is sized to your liking simply press the Return (PC: Enter) key to commit the transform.

Now repeat step 6 for the other 3 masks adding new photos, creating clipping masks and free transforming the photos to fit.

We’ve got one more image to place, this one will be the large image at the bottom of the invitation. You could choose to draw out a guide and create a mask for this one as well, but since it’s not really going to make any difference in this application I’ll pass and just place it where I want it.

Be sure that your top layer is selected. If you’re following our naming scheme that would be the “Photo 4″ layer.

Open the last photo and click and drag it into the document. Rename this layer “Photo Main” and use the Free Transform tool just like we did in the previous steps to size and place the image. This placement is a judgment call on your part, but be sure to leave a nice wide strip of black for the text we will insert in the next step.

(*note: At this point you can hide your guides by pressing Command-H (PC: Ctrl-H). You can bring them back with the same keyboard shortcut if needed)

Finally using the Text tool from the Tools palette type, format and place your text as you see fit. As a rule of good design I would recommend limiting your font usage to 2 fonts like the final image below. You can download the .PSD file for this exercise at the end of the lesson to take a look at how I laid out the text in my document.

(*note: The Text tool can be easily accessed by simply pressing the T key.)

In this Photoshop tutorial we will be creating an aged ace of spades using multiple layers with various blend modes and a nice overlay trick with a photo from

iStockPhoto

. This technique also works quite well for creating an aged paper effect.

Open a new file 540×480 at 72dpi with a white background.

First we are going to define our playing card size. Standard playing card aspect is 1×1.4, so I’m going to drag out a selection at that aspect, ending up with a selection that is 306×423. I’ll center it on the stage and then set guides to each side.

With the card space defined, select the rounded rectangle tool from the custom shape menu with a corner radius of 20, set your foreground color to #c8a762 and draw out a rectangle fit to the guides we laid out in step 1. Name this layer Card Edge.

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Duplicate the Card Edge layer by pressing Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J), lock the layer’s transparent pixels in the layer palette then fill this new layer with #ffebc6. Rename the layer Card Top. Switch to the Move tool by pressing V, then using the arrow keys move this layer up and left one pixel each. This will allow the Card Edge layer to become the right and bottom edge of the card.

(*note: you may hide your guides now by pressing Command-H (PC: Ctrl-H).

With the new Card Top layer selected (and the transparent pixels still locked), set your foreground color to #ffebc6 and background color to #f4d7a2.

From the main menu choose Filter>Render>Clouds. This will use the foreground and background colors we just set to create a cloud effect on the surface of the card. I like this effect to start because it adds a nice variation of tone to the background.

Again from the main menu choose Filter>Noise>Add Noise with a setting of 2, Gaussian and Monochromatic and click OK. The noise filter adds a little texture and crunch to the surface, but is a little to exaggerated and needs a touch of toning down.

From the main menu choose Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur with a setting of 2 and click OK.

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Next add a drop shadow to the Card Edge layer by selecting the layer and then double clicking to the right of the layer name in the layers palette OR by right clicking on the layer and selecting Blending Options from the drop-down menu.

Next, add a layer above the Card Top layer by first selecting the layer and then by clicking on the new layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette OR by pressing Command-Option-Shift-N (PC: Ctrl-Alt-Shift-N). Name this layer Burn and lower the layer’s Fill opacity at the top of the layers palette to 20% and link it to the Card Top layer as a clipping mask by holding the Option (PC: Alt) key while clicking the divider line between the two layers OR by right clicking on the Burn layer and selecting Create Clipping Mask from the menu.

Using a round paintbrush around 70px in diameter with a hardness setting of 0, blend mode of Color Burn and Opacity around 30%, paint in some dark areas of the card. I’ve turned off my Card layers in the photo below to show my burn pattern. I outlined the card so you can see where the burns are in relation to the card.

In the following image I’ve turned back on the Card Top and Card Edge layers so you can see the result of the Burn layer.

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Create a new layer above the Burn layer, name it Dodge and create a clipping mask with this layer as well (*note: now both the Burn and Dodge layers should be linked to the Card Top layer ) and with the Brush tool selected choose the Chalk 60 pixels brush from the brushes menu. The brush should be set to Normal with an opacity of 30%.

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With the Chalk brush paint randomly around the edges and especially lightly into the corners of the card. With the opacity set at 30% we you can paint overlaying strokes over small areas to make the paper look worn or even torn a bit. See the setting and edge effects in the example below.

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Create a new layer above the Dodge layer, name it highlight and create a clipping mask (*note: now we have 3 layers clipped to the Card Top layer).

Choose the Gradient tool from the Tools bar, set your foreground color to white and the gradient settings to Foreground-Transparent and Radial Gradient as pictured in the detail below, then clicking on the center of the card, drag the gradient to the top or bottom of the card. This will create a nice center highlight. So far we’ve been burning and antiquing the edges of the card where playing cards see the most use, but the center of playing cards doesn’t get nearly as much abuse so it needs to be a bit lighter.

Because I still feel like the card needs more abuse, I’m going to select a few of the grunge brushes that I keep in my pocket for just such an occasion. I’ll add a new layer on top and call it Grunge, add it to our Clipping Mask, change the layer blending mode to Color Burn and drop the opacity to 60. Then with a few of the corner grunge brushes, I’ll hit the corners of the file for extra detail. (*note: the grunge brush set I used is included in the tutorial zip file at the end of the lesson.)

The first example below shows the grunge at 100% opacity and Normal blending, the second shows the layer with the settings above and clipped to it’s sub-layers.

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Ordinarily at this stage I would have created a vector file for the center spade graphic as well as small spades to go beneath the A’s in the corners, but I thought we would use an image from

iStockPhoto

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instead and work a little blending mode action. I found and downloaded this nice ace of spades photograph, however, it wasn’t shot at exact center, so the perspective was a little off so I isolated the card, created a layer mask to remove the background and a Levels layer to bring the blacks down and the whites up as shown below.

Once the graphics were isolated to basic black and white I turned off all the background layers and copied all the visible layers combined by pressing Command-A (PC: Ctrl-A) to Select All, then by pressing Command-Shift-C (PC: Ctrl-Shift-C) I copied all the visible layers and pasted the combined result into my Card document and changed this new layer’s blend mode to Linear Burn in the layers palette. I named the layer Graphics and placed it at the top of the layers palette.

Dropping the Opacity of the Graphics layer to 75% makes the effect more believable, but the graphics need to age a bit as well, so I went ahead and created a layer mask and antiqued it a bit to get the final effect.

Create a selection of the card by holding the Command (PC: Ctrl) key while clicking on the layer’s thumbnail. This will select ONLY the object on this layer. With the selection made, I pressed the layer mask icon at the bottom of the layers palette (it looks like a light rectangle with a dark circle inside) to mask the layer to the selection. With the new layer mask created (and by default selected), I used the Spatter brush set at 33% Opacity to paint black over the sections of the Graphics layer which I wanted to make more worn.

Below (simply for visual reference) I’ve isolated the Layer mask by holding Option (PC: Alt) while clicking on the Layer Mask thumbnail in the layers palette along with a copy of my final layers palette for reference.

And finally the completed card.

In this Photoshop tutorial you will learn how to create a vector coffee cup in Photoshop by using Vector Masks. You will need a working knowledge of the pen and gradient tools for this tutorial. Vector masks allow us to create a series of shapes on unique layers that can be re-sized without pixelization common in other types of Photoshop files.

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When creating a vector element in Photoshop I always like to have a piece of reference material to get me started. It makes the process easier and gives me a guage as to how well I’ve pulled off the effect. In this tutorial we will be creating a vector coffee cup like the one below from the good folks at

iStockPhoto

. Go ahead and copy and past this coffee cup into your new document if you want to follow along at home.

Enlarge the photo so it’s easy to see. We will be tracing all the sections of this cup with the pen tool in a minute so it’s important to have the file large enough that it’s easily traceable. Each section will get it’s own layer and it’s own vector mask.

Start by using the pen tool to draw a selection around the inside and outside of the rim of the mug.

With the selection made we can now convert this path to a Vector Mask by right clicking on one of the paths and choosing the option Create Vector Mask from the drop-down menu. Doing this will add a vector mask next to the thumbnail in the layers palette similar to adding a basic layer mask. The difference is that a vector mask is based on the mathematical path data rather than on the pixels of the layer.

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We can see that the rim of the cup has a gradient so lets go ahead and use the eye-dropper tool to set the foreground color to the darker color on the right of the rim and the background to the lighter shade on the left. With the layer selected, use the gradient tool to drag a linear gradient from right to left filling the layer. You will notice that because we have a vector mask associated with this layer, only the rim of the glass gets the gradient, but on the layer thumbnail it is obvious that the whole layer has a gradient. You can right click on the vector mask icon in the layers palette to disable or inable the mask as well.

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The selection is filled with the new gradient now and we’re ready to head to the next step. Notice I haven’t worked around the steam coming off the cup, so the portion that is on the reference layer has been covered up by the new rim of the cup. This is fine, we can always place a layer above the rim layer to put the steam swirls back in, but I’m opting to leave them out of this tutorial.

Lets tackle the main body of the cup next. Place a new layer below the Cup Rim layer called Cup Body and trace the parimeter with the pen tool. You don’t need to worry about how you trace the top of this area because it will be hidden by Cup Rim layer.

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Again, right click on the path to create a vector mask (*note: you must have the pen tool selected to get this option in the menu).

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Sample the light and dark areas of the cup body just like we did in step number 4 and then using a radial gradient this time, start at the center of the highlight and drag away to create the desired look. By turning off the background layer (and adding a background layer of the same yellow) you can see what we’ve done so far.

Next the Cup Handle layer is created, traced and a radial gradient added. I’ve included my layers palette in the illustration below. Notice that I’m not tracing the overlapping areas tightly, it’s better to have overlapping than gapping.

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Repeat this process for each of the other elements in the cup and saucer, concluding with the saucer’s shadow. I opted not to do the steam. Here’s my final version with my layers palette.

One thing to consider in this particular example is the shadow cast by the saucer onto the background layer. Instead of filling it with a solid dark orange like the background, I filled it with black and then dropped the opacity to 15%, that way no matter what background you place this piece on, it will be a shadow.

My final tip would be to place all the layers that make up the cup into a group by selecting all of them and pressing Command+G (CTRL+G on PC). With the layers all in a group it’s a snap to transform and move them as a complete unit. At this point the coffee cup is a complete vector graphic and can be sized large or small with no pixelization AND can be re-sized at any time without consequence either.

Hey, I have an idea! Lets add another step!

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I’m thinking maybe it would be a cool idea to create some light rays behind the cup and maybe resize it with some text to make a cool little banner.

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Open a new file 600×600 with a transparent background, place a guide directly in the center and proceed to place 20×600 white bars from exact center 20 pixels apart in each direction from the center. (I put in a yellow background so you can see the white lines, but your backround should be transparent.

Now click Filter>Disort>Polar Coordinates and select Rectangular to Polar and click OK (who knew it would be that easy?)

Drag that layer over into your coffee cup document, put it above the background layer, maybe add a radial gradient map from the center so the rays fade away, add some fun text and here you go. Great job!

Now that you know how to create vectors in Photoshop there are a million things you can do better than before!