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Creating a Stunning Old-World Look in Photoshop

Creating a Stunning Old-World Look in Photoshop

Article
In this tutorial, we are going to create a sort of old-worldy composition featuring a compass and making use of some awesome vector artwork from Arsenal. As always there is a PSD file at the bottom of the tutorial. In this instance, I would highly recommend downloading it as this is quite a complex composition. Be warned this is a LONG tutorial!Oh and in case you’re wondering, inspiration comes from a really neat set of books, one of which is called the Golden Compass (actually they are making the book series a movie now!). Assets To do this, we’re going to need a few assets to work with. I’m using some vector shapes from GoMedia/Arsenal’s Freebie Section. Arsenal is a set of vector packs that you buy which can be used in Illustrator or Photoshop. In this instance be...
Making a Print-Ready Business Card Using Only Photoshop

Making a Print-Ready Business Card Using Only Photoshop

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Step 1Ok, so the very first thing we need to do is create a New Document. Depending on where you are planning on getting your cards printed, you may need different dimensions. The printer I use here in Sydney has a default card size of 90mm x 55mm.When sending things off to printers however, you need to add a sort of border around the image called a Bleed. A bleed is basically the space on the edges of your design where the image keeps going past where the printer is going to cut the paper. That way if the cut lands a mm to either side you don’t wind up with blank paper at the edges. How much space you leave for bleed also depends on your printer. Generally speaking 3mm – 5mm is a good amount of bleed.Because of a quirk of Photoshop (which you’ll see later) we’re going to use a ...
Create a 60′s Psychedelic Style Concert Poster

Create a 60′s Psychedelic Style Concert Poster

Article, Designing
In this tutorial, we will go through the steps to create a retro 1960s psychedelic concert poster. This tutorial relies heavily on the use of the Warp Tool, but includes a few other techniques as well. Let’s get started.Step 1Create a new document with a poster-like size ratio. Visualize how you want the document to be laid out and draw some rough guides with the Brush Tool (B) on a new layer called “guides”. I drew several different compartments that will each contain a different piece of text and one that will contain an image.Step 2Make a solid color adjustment layer and fill it with a deep purple. Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool(U). Set the radius so that you get a nice rounded edge that you like. Make sure that you set Make Work Path As Checked on the property bar. Now c...
9 Essential Principles for Good Web Design

9 Essential Principles for Good Web Design

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 1. Precedence (Guiding the Eye)Good Web design, perhaps even more than other type of design, is about information. One of the biggest tools in your arsenal to do this is precedence. When navigating a good design, the user should be led around the screen by the designer. I call this precedence, and it’s about how much visual weight different parts of your design have.A simple example of precedence is that in most sites, the first thing you see is the logo. This is often because it’s large and set at what has been shown in studies to be the first place people look (the top left). his is a good thing since you probably want a user to immediately know what site they are viewing.But precedence should go much further. You should direct the user’s eyes through a sequence of steps...
Digitally Collage a Camouflage Paper Jacket

Digitally Collage a Camouflage Paper Jacket

Article, Designing, Photo Effects
Final Image PreviewBefore we get started, view the image we’ll be creating. Click the screenshot below to view the full-size image. As always, the layered Photoshop file is available via our Psdtuts+ Plus membership.Recently, I wrote an article on Repeating Shapes and Patterns. This article shows some uses of patterns in design and illustration. The section on Camouflage Techniques discusses the blending of the foreground and the background of an image by using patterns. The article also shows some artwork that influenced this design.This tutorial uses vector masks and the Burn Tool to achieve many of the effects presented. If you’re not familiar with these tools, you will be by the end of this tutorial. It shouldn’t take you much longer than an hour to complete, even if you’re a...
Use Retouching Techniques to Create a Caricature From a Photo

Use Retouching Techniques to Create a Caricature From a Photo

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Photoshop includes some powerful tools to help you manipulate photos. In this tutorial, we will show you how to create a caricature portrait from a photo using many of Photoshop's advanced editing tools. In the process, you will learn how to use Adobe Camera RAW to make some global adjustments, how to use Photoshop's transformation and Liquify tools to alter the appearance of the portrait, how to retouch the image, and much more to give your portrait a cartoon or comic look. Let's get started!Tutorial AssetsYou will need the following assets to complete this tutorial. Please download them before you begin.Original Photo1. Source PhotoThis is the picture out of my camera without any modification.Step 1Open the DNG file in Photoshop Camera Raw. Click on "Workflow Options" at the botto...
Elements of Great Web Design: The Polish

Elements of Great Web Design: The Polish

Article, Designing
   When I put together designs, I usually do so in two phases – Layout and Polish. During the layout phase, I place the main objects on the page usually finishing with something that looks relatively complete. In the second stage – the Polish – I go over the design and adjust colors, type treatments, shadows, layers, and generally clean it all up. In this first of a series of tutorials on web design, we’ll be looking at the Polish. A Short PrefaceUnlike with Photoshop effects, Web design can’t really be taught in a set of easily repeatable steps. If you look at most great Web designs, they are not difficult to reproduce technically. You could probably screenshot a design, put it into Photoshop and then replicate the same design layer by layer. The trick, however, ...
Photoshop’s Role in a Web Design Workflow

Photoshop’s Role in a Web Design Workflow

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The web has undergone some serious changes in recent years and the way in which the web is designed is changing along with it. Photoshop may still be the “go-to” tool for many web designers, but for some, Photoshop is no longer king. In this article, Ian Yates, Editor of Webdesigntuts+ will explain how Photoshop was used in the past, how it can be used in the future, and why.What is it Good For?Technically speaking, Photoshop is an application for manipulating imagery (forgive me for stating the obvious there) but it’s also packed with tools for building graphics from scratch. Shape, vector, type, fills and effects, all of these (and more) lend themselves very well to constructing graphic layouts.Not too long ago, web browsers were incapable of directly generating these kinds of e...
Top Photo Manipulation Tutorials

Top Photo Manipulation Tutorials

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Photoshop is certainly the best photo editing application on the market. It allows us to create just about anything our minds can dream up. While it can be a lot of fun to dream up new ideas, executing those ideas can be quite challenging. In this article, we have listed 20 top photo manipulation tutorials to teach you how to perfect your artwork. Create a Powerful Human Disintegration Effect in Photoshop In this tutorial we will create a powerful, and emotional human disintegration effect in Photoshop. Create a Surreal "Parting of the Sea" Photo Manipulation Water, by its very nature is difficult to convincingly incorporate into a composition. In this tutorial, you will discover how to combine advanced masking techniques, blending modes, adjustment layers and clever use ...
13 Photoshop Tutorials for Halloween

13 Photoshop Tutorials for Halloween

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In October, many of our readers are beginning to think about Halloween, a mostly-American holiday where people like to dress up in scary costumes, carve pumpkins, and of course, eat candy. As artists or designers, you might be thinking about how to create some Halloween-themed artwork of your own. In this article, we will round up some of our favorite tutorials that include things like skulls, monsters, zombies, haunted houses, horror, witches, and text effects to help inspire you for your next Halloween project.Create a Rusty and Worn Metallic Textured Skull Using 3D RendersPhotoshop is a fantastic tool to help 3D artists save time and improve the look of their renders. In this tutorial we will demonstrate how to combine ZBrush materials and lighting render passes to create a s...