Abstract Avatars

I will now show you all how to make abstract Avatars. Its very easy, so just follow along. Pre: Open up image, 400x400 [yes, 400x400], transparent

1. Press 'd', and Fill the entire thing with black.

2. Go to Filter, Render, Lens Flare, then put it at these settings: Lens Type: 50-300 mm Zoom Brightness: 100 Put it at the center of the image.

3. Use the Smudge tool, at brush size around 19-25, and make a spread out shape, I'm using a star, and use the smudge tool on all the lines 3 times.

4. Now, go to Filter, Distort, Wave, and press randomize until you get some either that you like, or spread out. [spread out gives a more finished effect for 2nd part.

You can stop here, and just go to the final step if you want to, this right now makes a weird, but effective logo, if you can fit it into a site.

5. Duplicate the layer. Now, go to Filter, Distort, Wave, and press Randomize again, until you get something you like, and is different from the 1st layer.

6. Set this layer to either Screen, or Lighten. (It depends on what you got when you randomized, and what looks good to you). Then, Merge All the Layers.

If you stopped at step 5, come back down here, and follow the steps until the end.

7. Now, all you have to do is resize it to be 100x100.

8. Just press ctrl+I to invert the colors to make it a cool shade of blue, then maybe add a border, and you are finished with your very own Abstract Avatar.

Abstract Background

Make a new document (I used 800x800) Fill it with black Go to: filter>render>lense flare (100% 50-30mm Zoom) Make 5 of these so that they mimic the layour below

Go to filter>sketch>chrome (detail:4 Smoothness: 7) Go to filter>artistic>plastic wrap (highlight: 5 detail: 9 smoothness: 7) Go to filter>distort>wave and change type to "triangle" and leave the other settings on default

Now duplicate the layer two times and set blending option to "lighten" on both layers On the top layer go to filter>distort>twirl (angle: 300) On the second layer go to filter>distort>twirl (angle: -300) Now it should look like this:

Now you have two options, either colorize each layer and the flatten it or flatten the layers first and then colourize.

Abstract Signature Tutorial

Firstly you need to create a new image. Use the sizes 430x150

Now you need to fill the background black. This makes the brushng easier to see. You can always make it another colour after you finish!

Now we add some brush strokes to the picture. Use around 10-20 layers on this stage. Use alternating colours on each layer: black, white, black, white etc. Brushes can be found at http://brushes.deviantart.com

We now add some colour to this image. Every 3-5 layers add a \"colour balance\" layer found at layer > new adjustment layer > color balance. Mess around with the colours until you get a cool combination.

Here is what I ended up with: Hint: Don\'t go too overboard with the colours on the first and second colours balance layer.

Now to add some text. Simply choose a font you like and write what you want.

Play around with the font, give it a border and change the blending mode.

Now to add a proffessional looking border. Press ctrl+d to deselect everything and make a new layer above everything. Select the rectangle marquee too and drag a box over the whole image then stroke it by right clicking and selecting "stroke". Make a 3 pixel border like the on found in the tutorial at the following address. http://advertisezone.co.uk/ar/t1111.htm

To finish off mess around with the layer blending options a bit and add some filling effects. Then you are done. Here is my finished result!

That's it! Below are resources you may want...

Stroke technique:

Abstract Signatures

1) Make a new, blank, 400x100, transparent background project. RGB color and etc.

2) Press [Ctrl+D] on your keyboard to reset the colors to default, then click your Gradient Tool.

3) Make five or six clicks with the Gradient tool, but make sure that the settings are on 'Difference.' It should look something similar to this by now:

4) Press [Ctrl+U] on your keyboard, or go to Image>>Adjustments>>Hue/Saturation. A window should pop up. Click on [Colorize], then adjust the color to whatever you want. This is my example:

5) Now, go up to Layers>>New>>Layer...

6) In this new layer, go to Filter>>Render>>Clouds. Press [Ctrl+F] as many times as you need if you didn't get a cloud selection you like.

7)Color your clouds with [Ctrl+U]; try to use colors similar to the layer beneath it, if not the same colors.

8) Now go to your [Layers] window and move this colored cloud layer beneath the gradient. After doing this, change the layer blending of the gradient to [Hard Light]. It doesn't truly matter what you want to use; I prefer Hard Light because it gives a better effect.

You now have a nice little abstract background you can use for your signatures.

Optional Steps: 1) Make a new, transparent layer over the merged ones and select your Brush tool. Choose a nice brush that you feel will suit the purpose, then stamp it once in the color white.

2) After this, go to the Layers window again and move the stamped layer to the bottom, under the clouds layer. Make the blending for the cloudy layer into Hard Light as well.

3) Using the lasso tool [Be sure that your Feather is on 20px], select the stamped layer and make a figure like this:

Then press [Ctrl+I] to invert the selection like this:

Afterwards, delete the selected parts. It should look like this:

To make it blend better, change its opacity to 42%. [Anything works, really, as long as you can see it]

5) Make a new layer above all previous layers. Take the pencil tool, and with a 1px brush, black, make horizontal lines across the image. Space them with 1 px in between.

Then, go to Opacity and make it 13%. [Be sure you can still see it, but not so much that it overtakes your background.]

6) For text, fill in a bit of text wherever you want; in this case, since the left side seems so empty, I'll put my text there.

7) Do whatever you want to your text; make it glow, shadows, etc.

8) [This is a completely optional step that is rather useless if you think about it.] Take up your lasso tool once more and make an outline around your text. Afterwards, select the layer with the lines and press delete twice. This will make the background for your text clearer and outline it a bit. With that all said and done; you are finally finished! Apply different colors, brushes, patterns, etc. and see what you can come up with. My final product:

Airbrush Effect (Motion Effect)

Alright, start off with a new layer, 400x100 will do, now give it a black background.

Select the Text tool, and use text size 72p, now with the size of this layer, i'm going to write 'ash'

You put what you want. Make sure it's in white, now move it to the middle. Duplicate the text layer 2 times, and rasterize the first and last. (right click > rasterize) Now select the first layer, and go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur Use the settings : Angle : 0 Distance 352 (or what you prefer)

Now click ok. Now press ctrl f twice Now repeat the blur with the last duplicate, but this time use the angle as 90.

Now delete the text layer you have left. Now merge the two rasterized layers into 1. then duplicate that. Duplicate it once more. Now, you should have something like this..

Preview

Now i realize the image is plain, but if you add it to another images, and set the layers mode to soft light, it should look good.

Blood Splatter

Step 1: Make a new document size 400 x 100, then add a black to white gradient across it: Preview

Step2: Go to Filter >> Distort >> ZigZag, then use these settings: Amount = 100 Ridges = 20 Style = Pond ripples You should get something that looks like this: Preview

Step 3: Go to filter >> Distort >> Wave, select square, then click randomize, you should get something that looks like this: Preview

Step 4: Go to Filter >> Noise >> Add noise, have amount set at 13.13, distribution = Uniform, and check Monochromatic. You should get something that looks like this: Preview

Step 5: Go to Filter >> Blur >> Radial Blur, select zoom and have Amount = 100. You can choose the quality yourself. You should get something that looks like: Preview

Step 6: Go to Filter >> Brush Strokes >> Ink Outlines, and use the settings: Stroke Length = 4 Dark intensity = 20 Light intensity = 10 Click OK and you should get something like this: Preview

Step 7: Go to Image >> Adjustments >> Hue/Saturation, check colourize then mess around until you get the red colour you like, you should end up with this: and there you have it, an effective looking blood splatter, try experimenting to see what you can come up with: Preview

My final picture turned out like Preview

Blue Swirl

1) Start by opening a new, blank, transparent, 1024 pixel x 768 pixels, transparent
click here
2)Make a new layer
click here
3) On the first layer fill it with black, 000000
click here
4)Go to Filter>Render>Lens Flare, place the flare in the middle of the layer.
click here
click here
5)Move layer 1 above layer 2
click here
6)Click the eye next to layer 1 to hide the image. Then select layer 2.
click here
7)Click your Gradient tool
click here
8)Then click the black and white gradient
click here
9) Next apply the gradient 4 or 5 times, you should get something like this
click here
10)Next go to Filter>Distort>ZigZag
click here Amount- 99 Ridges- 19
click here
11)Next go to Filter>Distort>Twirl
click here
click here
12)Click on layer one, make it visible again by clicking where the eye was
click here
13)Change the opacity to 35%
click here
14)Next click on Image>Adjustments>Hue
click here
click here
15)Pick the colors you want for this I will use blue
click here
16)Click on Layer 2 and repeat steps 14 and 15
click here
17) Now you are done and my final image looks like this:
click here

Cartoon Effect

1. Find an image you like, just for example, I'll use the following:

2. Paste this in photoshop. Go to filter > blur > Gaussian blur with a radius of 3. 3. Go to filter > fade (top) and set it to 100% and darken. 4. Voila! You're done! You should've ended up with something like this:

Enjoy! :)

Cool Abstract

step1: go to file>new>select whatever sizes you want>ok

step 2: hit d to reset he colors>select the paint bucket tool>fill the entire area with black it should now be like this:

step3: go to filter>render>lens flare select these settings: brightness:100% lens type:50-300mm zoom render four lens flares,so it should now be like this:

step 4: go to filter> sketch> chrome put all the settings on:about half way it should now be like this:

step5: duplicate the layer and set the blen mode to lighten(there doesn\'t look like much difference but it will be important in future steps step6:duplicate the layer(layer 1 copy)another three times.

step6: select layer 1 copy then go to filter>distort>polar coordinates select rectangular to polar

step 7: select layer1 copy 3 go to filter>distort>polar coordinates select polar to rectangular

step 8: select layer1 copy 2 go to filter>distort>polar coordinates select polar to rectangular then go to edit>transform rotate 180

step 9: select layer 1 copy go to filter>distort>wave use these settings: no of generators: 5 wavelength:min:10 max:120 amplitude:min:5 max:35 scale:horiz:100% vert:100% type:sine undifined areas:repeat edge pixels click ok you should now have something that looks like this:

step 10: select each individual layer> press ctrl + u>tick colorize>change the hue,saturation and light ness to what ever you want: then go to layer>merge visible finished result:

Cross Spikes Effect

To save time, I made the tutorial an image so just view the image below to go to it :)

And there you have it.

Dreamy Effect

1) Get your image bg, and the render you're gonna use.

2) Take your render and paste it on.

3) Set the render's layer style to Soft Light, and duplicate it. Then change the new layer's blending style back to normal.

4) Go Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur With these settings:

5) Duplicate the Soft Light layer, and put it above the Gaussian Blurred one. It should look like this...

Aaand then you're done. Enjoy. :P

Ink Outline

Creating an interesting inky effect using Photoshop and a base image.

Click the image for the tutorial in a new window.

by Retribution.

Pixel Stretching

Using the pixel stretch effect to make a background.

Click the image for the tutorial in a new window.

Created by Ns-5

Reflections

Ok in this tutorial I would teach your how to create a simple reflection , which you can use on text , or images.Lets begin.

Step-1 :

Open the document that you want to add a reflection toBe sure that it is in layers! It doesn\'t matter what it is.

Preview

Step-2 :

Now for me the layer I want to reflect is text.Duplicate that layer.

Preview

Step-3 :

Now on the top menu go to edit>transform>vertical... after you fliped the duplicated layer move your reflection layer underneath the main layer.

Preview

Step-4 :

Now to complete what we came here for , we\'ll have to add a layer mask to the reflection layer.

Preview

Step-5 :

Choose the gradient tool , and select just above the reflection layer to about 3/4 of the way down.(try time and time again till you get it the way you want it) Heres my final image

Preview

Sparkle Dust

First off, It's easier if we get a piece to work around, or if you want, just start off with a:

1. 500x500 canvas with a black background, like so: Preview

2. Select your brush tool (B)

3. Click on 'Windows > Brushes'. A new window should popup, like this: Preview Click 'Brush tip shape' and find the 'Star 33 pixels' brush. Preview Now follow these settings: Brush Tip Shape Spacing: 50% Shape Dynamics Size Jitter: 100% Scattering Make sure 'Both Axes' is ticked. Scatter: 436% Count: 4 Count Jitter: 21%

THERE ARE MY PERSONAL DEFAULT SETTINGS, FEEL FREE TO PLAY WITH THESE SETTINGS TO ACHIEVE YOUR OWN DESIRED EFFECT!

Now go back to your canvas, make a new layer and start drawring your stars. (make sure your foreground color is white) Preview

Now this is nice, but give this star layer an outer glow, with an opacity of 50%! (right click layer and go to blending options) so now after a few mess arounds, the outcome should be like this: Preview

For a better piece where this star dust is used, check this: Preview

Starry Sky

This tutorial will help you if you intend to make a realistic night sky.

1. Start with a dark background color. Black, dark blue, whatever.

2. Here's the trick. GO to Effects-->Artistic Effects-->Balls and Bubbles. The settings you will need are as follows: Select the "Automatic multiple Balls or bubbles" option. Coverage: 10 (change this depending on how many stars you want) Average size: 0 Size Variation: 50 Balls or Bubbles type: Intersecting It might not look very "starry" yet, but just wait. Click the "surface" tab. Make the settings as follows: Opacity: 0 Shininess: 100 Gloss: 0 Under the Maps tab, just make sure nothing is checked. Under Illumination: Ambience Maximum: 100 (min doesn't matter) Individual Light properties: Make there be only one light, either by adding or removing some. Mke the color of that light white and set the hightlight size to 10. Finally, click OK. You should get something like this:

If you wish to make a more detailed sky, make several layers of these stars and set the opacity levels differently. You can use this technique to make snow by increasing the highlight size too. Happy starmaking!

Wire Background

I was trying to randomly put something together and came out with this interesting background.

1. Hit "D" to reset colors.

2. Filter>Render>Clouds

3. Filter>Pixelate>Mosaic - Cell Size: 17

4. Filter>Stylize>Find Edges

5. Filter>Stylize>Emboss - Settings: Leave at Default

6. Hit Ctrl + U to change the colors.

Glassy Effect

Alright, so you want to know how to make that type of glassy effect that you see on gradients in a lot of forums? Well, it's really quite simple.

First, just start out with a blank canvas.

Now, create a new layer for your gradient. Select the color that you want to base the gradient off of, and fill-in your layer with it.

Ok, now for the gradient. Open-up the blending options for that layer, and go to the "Gradient Overlay". This is the hard part. For your first color, choose a color slightly darker than your base color. For your second color, choose a color slightly lighter.

Now, still in the "Gradient Overlay" field, select "reflected" from the "Style" field.

You can see it starting to come together, can't you? All we need now is a glare. Create a new layer above your gradient layer. Use a marquee to select half of the canvas vertically, but all of it horizontally. Fill it with pure white.

You're practically done. All that's left is to lower the opacity of that layer. DO NOT change the blending options. Just change the layer opacity to something between 5 & 15%.

Well, there you have it! A perfect glassy effect that can be used anywhere. You can use it as a cool effect in banners, a nice menu background, or for gradients. The possibilities are endless.

Tutorial by Scorpian Please do not repost

Gradient Nav

1. Create a 500x500 document (best if you have space to work in). Fill the background in with the color 7D7D7D
2. Select the rounded rectangle tool and make a rectangle on your page, fill this in with the foreground color, white. press d then x on your keyboard. your foreground color and background color should now be white and black. if this is correct, proceed to the next step.

3. Select your gradient tool and from the bottom of the rectangle, hold shift and move the gradient up, let go.

4. After this, give your image a gaussian blur of 1.5. If followed correctly, your image should now look like the following. Preview

5. Create a new layer, but ctrl+click on your first layer (the gardiented rectangle). so you're gradient rectangle is selected, but you're on the new layer. like shown Preview

6. Go-to Select > Modify > contract...contract this by 4. That dotted rectangle should now have moved in by 4pixels, like show. Preview

7. Fill this in with white, right click this rectangle and go to 'Blending Options'. Give it an (Leave the settings as default, just changing as stated below) Outerglow Blend Mode : Normal Color: Black Opacity: 75% Gradient Overlay Opacity: 41% Stroke: Size: 1 Opacity: 54% Color: Black Your image should now look like this Preview

YOUR NAV BOX IS NOW NEAR ENOUGH COMPLETE, IF YOU WANT TO LEAVE IT LIKE THIS AND JUST ADD YOUR TEXT, GO AHEAD. BUT OTHERWISE, FOLLOW ON.

8. Create another small rectangle just at the top of the current one, so it's like a small heading. Give it another gradient like the first box you did, but this time set the gaussian blur to 1.0, Set the opacity of this box to 16%, so you now have something like this Preview

9. Add some text 10. A few inset lines and you're done. :D Final Image:

Preview

Making a tech Logo, Menu and Buttons Set

This is a too long tutorial and In This Tutorial, we are going to make a Tech Logo with the Manu and its buttons set together.
For this job, first wee need to create a New Document in our desired size, the size, which we like, our logo be in, we should choose the wide similar to our forum wide.
For example, here I have chosen 750 as wide and 200 as height.
Then we need to create a New Layer on it and then start to create basic shapes on it.
For this job, you need to choose Rounded Rectangular Tool from your Photoshop Toolbar and create a Rounded Rectangular like mine:

Image


Now again create a New Layer, again choose Rounded Rectangular Tool, and create another smaller rounded Rectangular in the left side of the bigger Rectangular.

Image

Now, go to Menu, Edit and from there choose Transform Path and then Skew. Now try to deform your shape like mine:

Image

Now until here, we are going to add effects on both Rectangular which we have created before. First, choose the first Rounded Rectangular shape layer and add these effects on it gradually like me:

Effect 1

Effect 2

Effect 3

Effect 4

Effect 5

Effect 6

Effect 7

Effect 8

(To add effects, Double Click on the Layer, then a box will appear to you, and then start adding effects like me)
Now you should have something like this:

Image

Now you should add all those effects again on the second rectangular layer. For this job, you can Right Click on the bigger Rounded Rectangular Layer and choose Copy Layer Style, Then another Right Click on the Smaller Rounded Rectangular Layer and choose Paste Layer Style.
Now you must have something like this:

Image

Now, we are going to add other parts. First, we work on Bigger Rounded Rectangular shape. First, create a New Layer and then choose Rounded Rectangular Tool from your Photoshop Toolbar, and create another Rounded Rectangular like mine:

Image

Now add these effects Step by Step like me again on this New Rounded Rectangular. First a right click on the New Rectangular layer, an effect box will opens to you and you need to add these effects on it:

Effect 1

Effect 2

Effect 3

Effect 4

Effect 5

Effect 6

Effect 7


Now again create a New Layer, Then press CTRL and choose this new Rectangular layer to make it selected like this:

Image

Now, is the time to adding Brushworks on the New Layer, which you have created before. Choose Brush Tool from your Photoshop Toolbar and add Brushworks like mine:

Image

I have used d31 Brushes, which I have downloaded from Deviantart. Now go to Menu, Image and from there Adjustments and then choose Hue and Saturation and choose this format and numbers like me:

Image

Now you must have something like this:

Image


Now your Rounded Rectangular Layer is selected yet, you must choose your Brushwork Layer and go to the Menu, Edit, and choose Stroke.
Now you need to add a dark Stroke in 2A2A2A color, Outside and 1px size, and then click on OK.

Now you must have something like this:

Image

Now create a New Layer again, and choose Rounded Rectangular Tool from your Photoshop Toolbar and create a little Rounded Rectangular and use Skew on it to make it fit with the smaller Rectangular like this image:

Image

Now add these Effects Step by step like me on this new rounded rectangular, Right Click again on the new rectangular layer, an effect box appears to you, now add effects:

Effect 1

Effect 2

Effect 3

Effect 4

Effect 5

Effect 5
( Color = B7E1F7)

Effect 6

Now you must have something like this:

Image

Now create a New Layer again, we are going to make a shape like a pipe between Bigger Rounded Rectangular and Smaller Rounded Rectangular.
Now create a New Layer and then choose Rectangular Marquee Tool and set its Feather to 5 px and create a square and fill into it with black color. Choose Paint Bucket from your Photoshop Toolbar and then fill into it like this:

Image

Choose that Rectangular Marquee Tool again and create another square like the image and then Press DEL on your keyboard like second image:

Image 1

Image 2

Now change the Feather of Marquee Tool into 0px again and create another square like this image and press DEL on your keyboard like second image:

Image 1

Image 2

Again create another square like image 1 and press DEL on your keyboard like image 2:

Image

Now you must have something like this:

Image

Duplicate your layer and then create another new Layer on it.

Now you need to choose Brush Tool and choose Rounded Brushes and set its size as 5 px. Then start to adding these lines on a New Layer. Like the image:

Image

Now choose your First Duplicated Layer, the First Cuted Square Layer and press CRTL on your keyboard and then Click on Your New Layer which you added lines on it to make it selected. Then Press DEL on your keyboard.
Now you must go back to your First Cuted Square Layer and add these Effects on it Step by Step:

Effect 1

Effect 2

Effect 3

Effect 4

Effect 5

Effect 6

Effect 7

Effect 8


Then choose the Duplicated Layer and press CTRL on your keyboard and then Click on it to make it Selected and then choose Paint Bucket  From your Photoshop Toolbar and fill into it with your favorite color, here I have used a light blue.
My image after adding effects and colors is like this:

Image

Just after all works I have explained you at the top, you can work on the pipe yourself and make it well groomed and  match with your other parts of header.

Now here we are going to add a text and some objects on the bigger Rounded Rectangular. How about some circles?
For this job, first create a  New Layer, then start creating a tiny circle by using Ellipse Tool from your Photoshop Toolbar :

Image

Now you need to add these Effects on your Circle Layer step by step like me:
Just double Click on the circle shape layer and then an Effect box will appear to you, now add effects:

Effect 1

Effect 2

Effect 3

Effect 4

Effect 5

Now you must have something like this:

Image

Now first create a New Layer, then choose Ellipse Tool again from your Photoshop Toolbar and create another circle but this time in a smaller size:

Image

Now again, double click on the layer and add all previous effects, which we added on the bigger circle, here, also you can do something different.
First a Right Click on the bigger Circle Layer and choose Copy Layer Style, then a Right Click on this new Smaller Circle Layer and choose Paste Layer Style.
Now you must have something like this:

Image

Now you need to create a New Layer, then choose Ellipse Tool from your Photoshop Toolbar again and create another smaller circle to complete the decoration.
Here again you need to add all previous effects on the smaller circle. After that you must have something like this:

Image

Attention! : all these Decoration which I have added, is something for example, you can add your desired decoration on your logo. Also you can choose your favorite colors. Here I just like to show you how you can assemble objects and use effects and brushes to create a logo. All is just for example.

Now is the time to add your Forum’s name on your logo. First create a New Layer, then choose Text Tool from your Photoshop Toolbar and add your text on your logo. Here I have chosen Mingle Font you can download from Dafont and its size is 36.

After creating your text, now is time to add effects on the text. Text effects are completely up to you. Here I have added these effects on my text, you can add on your text too:

Effect 1

Effect 2

Effect 3

Effect 4

Effect 5

Effect 6

Effect 7

Effect 8

Effect 9

Now you must have something like this:

Image

Now create a New Layer again and add a text or something you like on the smaller Rounded Rectangular. Here I have added a text.
When you added the text, you can add your desired effects on it, just Remember here because of the animation which we are going to have on this text, wee need to have a Color Overlay Effect. In the first Text, I have used This color code 03F9F6 as Color Overlay Effect. Now you should have something like this, just remember your effects maybe are different from mine. Just Color Overlay is the same:

Image

Now go to Menu, Layer, and from there choose Duplicate Layer, now you have another copy from your Second Text Layer. Go to this New Duplicated Layer and there, choose Color Overlay from Effects in Layer Palette and double click on it, now you need to change the Overlay color into another color, For example here I have chosen FFFF00 color, or Yellow color as Duplicated Layer Color Overlay:

Image

Now Create a New Layer and then choose Rounded Rectangular Tool from your Photoshop Toolbar and create a tiny Rounded Rectangular like mine:

Image

Now here you need to go to Layer Palette and choose the Small Rounded Rectangular Layer and right click on it, choose Copy Layer Style. Then come back on your new Tiny rounded Rectangular Layer and right click on it and choose Paste Layer Style.
By this job, you must have something like this:

Image

Now go to the Menu, Layer, and from there, choose Duplicate Layer and create a copy from this Tiny rounded Rectangular and then move it to another corner of your banner by arrows on the keyboard.
Now you should have something like this:

Image

Now it’s the time to add animation on our logo. Send your image to ImageReady, now there you need to first turn off the eye beside the duplicated layer:

Image

Now go to the Animation Palette, Set the time on 0.2 and delay forever. Now create a new Frame and then go to the Layer Palette and now turn on the eye beside the duplicated Layer. Now your animation is ready, you can go to the Menu, File, and from there choose Preview in Browser. Now you can see your image in the Internet Explorer Window.
Its time to save your image. If you like you can add more decoration on your logo, but here, because its just a practice, I’m going to save it here in Image Ready.
For this job, you need to go to Menu, File, and then from there choose Save Optimized As, and save it as gif image, (Animated Gif)

Here you have finished your job on the logo, and now its time to start creating menu and its buttons.
Here something is really important for you to make your menu and its buttons completely match with your logo, you must remember the size of the space between two tiny Rounded Rectangular. You can find it by using ruler in the photoshop. If you like to see Ruler in your Photoshop page, you need to press CTRL+R on your keyboard, now Ruler appears on your Photoshop page.
Now you need to right click on the ruler and there choose Pixels and by this way, find the size of the space between tiny rounded rectangulars.

Now we are going to make menu and then its buttons. For this job you need to create a new document in your forum wide size. Here I have chosen 750px as wide and 80 px as height.

Now first you need to create your menu butoons background in the size of the space between tiny rounded rectangulars in logo just you need to create this shape a few bigger than this space to make it match with your logo.
Here first create a New Layer and then choose Rounded Rectangular Tool from your Photoshop Toolbar and create a Rounded Rectangular from 50px on your Ruler to 450, and then add it all Effects which you have added on the bigger Rounded Rectangular when you was creating the Logo, also you need to move it a few to the bellow and let a few free space at the top for decorations. Now you must have something like this:

Image

Now it’s the time to add some Decoration on your Menu, remember here we need to add this menu to the Logo, for this job, we need to make pipes like which we created to connect Bigger Rounded Rectangular to Smaller Rounded Rectangular.
Then create a New Layer and create pipes again, here you can create a pipe like image and then duplicate both its layers and move them to another side to have something like this:

Image

(Put these pipes by using ruler on 51 and another on 410.)

Now your menu background its ready, but if you like you can add some decoration like this images on it as your taste:

Image

Now your menu background  is ready. If you like to have PM bar also, you can create something like menu bar but a few smaller, beside menu bar for PMs. Also you can attach it to the logo by adding  pipes or something like on this.
Also you can use your Smaller rounded Rectangular as your Pm bar. All of them is up to you and you can make it yourself  by your taste.
Now here you have menu and logo and just need menu buttons match with your menu bar. For this job you need to use , menu bar background and create buttons from that  background, when you saved you menu, let it be open and now start adding your menu buttons texts on the menu background first like this:

Image

Now you must choose Crop Tool from your Photoshop Toolbar and Crop them one by one:

Image

After Crop, you will have something like this:

Image

This is your Home button. Now you can save it. If you like to have Rollover menu buttons, you need to save it as Home_off.


Now to creating next button, you should first press CTRL+Z on your keyboard to undo your action, now choose next button to Crop:

Image

And about all other buttoms you need to repeat all previous actions. And remember to save all of them “Button_off” if you like to have Rollover menu buttons.

When you finish your work on all your buttons and saved them, you need to make your ON buttons for your Rollover form.
Open your button. Then go to Menu, Image, and Adjustments and from there choose Hue and Saturation and set the setting like mine:

Image

Your ON button is ready, now you just need to save it as “Button_on”
And you must do this on all other buttons to create your ON buttons.
Finally, this job has finished and now you have your logo, menu and its buttons completely match together.
Just you need to put them by their codes in your forum. Please for any questions, post here, also if you need more explains about a part in this tutorial, post here I will post here for you more explain.
Now I just made this tutorial as a sample for you to show you how you can make a tech logo and menu and its buttons.
I will post another tut here for you about making Pipes in several forms and styles, to show you how you can make Tech Pipes and add on your logo and somewhere you like. Also here I have choose a white background to show you everything better, you can choose your desired color for the background.

Enjoy!

and it will be your banner and menu with a button after you added into your forum.

Final Image

here maybe I have some faults because I have made it so hotfoot. please if you see something wrong post here, Ill edit it :)
thanks

Created By Ellen

Making Menu Grad & Menu Buttons Set

Step 1:

Open up an image, and make it the width of your forum. The height should be between 25 and 30. For the purpose of this tutorial, we will use the height as 30px.

Image 1

Image 2

Step 2:

Click on the gradient tool. (right click on the paint-bucket tool if you do not see it)

Image

Step 3:

Open up the gradient editor menu. Put in the colors that you would like to use for the gradient. We will use 1d1d1d and 8f8f8f as ours.

Step 4:

Now, do you see the field with the words "Custom" typed in already? Now you will type in the name you would like the gradient to be called. After you do this, click on the "New" button next to the field.

Image 1

Image 2

Step 5:

Now, we are going to make sure we get an even gradient on the buttons and menu background. To do this, click on the fill tool (Paint Bucket). Now, fill in the entire canvas using it.

Image

Step 6:

Now, open up the blending options menu for the layer. Go to "Gradient overlay." Since you already made your gradient, all you have to do is click on it in the gradients list.

Image 1

Image 2

Step 7:

Now, save the image something like "Menu BG image" and you are done with the first part.

Image

Step 8:

Next, we are going to make the buttons. First, open up a new file that is 30px in height and around 90px wide. (you can crop the width to fit later, this is just to make sure the word fits)

Image 1

Image 2

Step 9:

Now, using the fill tool (paint-bucket) like before, we are going to fill the entire canvas with a dark gray, or other color.

Image

Step 10:

Now, open up the blending options for the layer with the gradient. Go to the Gradient Overlay box, like before. Now, since you already made the gradient before, just click on it and click ok. Now your button gradient matches your menu background gradient perfectly.

Image 1

Image 2

Step 11:

Now all we have to do is add the text for the particular button, and it now resembles what it should! Step 12: It looks a bit big though, doesn't it? If so, we can just use the cropping option to get rid of blank space. (Use the rectangular marquee tool to select only what you want as the button, and go to image-->Crop and get rid of the rest) Now you have a good looking button!

Image

Experiment now. Try adding little extras, like dividers and text effects to improve the look!

Created by ~CrAzY~ and Ellen

Realistic Tape

Tutorial: Tape in Photoshop

1: Make a new document (300 by 300) and press Ctrl + A to select all.

2: Make your foreground colour 7B0000. Right click the canvas and choose "Fill". Choose foreground in the dropdown list. Hit Ok.

3: Make a new layer (ctrl + shift + N) and press D and then X on your keyboard.

4: Choose the "Rectangular Marquee Tool" and make a selection similar to this:

5: Choose the "Lasso Tool" and hold down the Alt button and make a selection (that deletes) like this:

6: And do the same in the bottom so it looks similar to this:

7: Right click the canvas and choose "Fill". Choose foreground in the dropdown list. Hit ok. 8: Go to the Layers pallete and reduce the Opacity to 90%.

8: Make a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N) and click on the "Brush Tool" and right click the canvas, click the little, blue arrow that points right and choose a grunge brush (big enough to fill the selected area. (Go to [url=http://google.com]Google[/url] and search for "grunge photoshop brushes" if you do not have any.)

9: Press D on your keyboard. Now click once in the selected area and go to the Layers pallete and change the Opacity to 9%.

10: Merge the grunge layer with the white tape layer. (Ctrl + E.) 10: Press Ctrl + t to move the tape. This is what I got:

Here I have illustrated the see-through on different colours:

Enjoy! :D

Shiny Bar

Shiny Bar by hpmad

1. Open a new canvas about 500x20 pixels or so.

2. Create a new layer and name it "Bar". Fill this layer with a color. It can be any color you want. Click for screenshot

3. Create a new layer. Name it "Top". Ctrl+Click the "Bar" layer to load the selection. Make sure you are still on the "Top" layer. Click for screenshot

4. Hold down Alt and select the bottom 1/3 of the loaded selection from the last step. You should now have about 1/3 of the image selected on top. Click for sceenshot

5. Again, make sure you are on the "Top" layer. Fill this selection with any color, only a lighter shade. Click for screenshot

6. Choose the Move Tool (V) and press the down arrow key about 1 or 2 times to nudge the top part down a little bit. Click for sceenshot

7. You now have a professional looking bar! Experiment with some gradients or blending options to see what you can come up with. You can add text and even use the slice tool to make a menu bar! This is what I came up with: Click for screenshot

Shiny Buttons

I'm going to show you how to make something like this: Preview

1. Make a new image, around 60x25

2. Fill it with a dark grey to white gradient

3. Right click that layer and go to blending options: Use these settings: Inner Shadow Stroke Gradient Overlay When you use stroke, you need to make the colour close to the background of your buttons.

4. Make a new layer

5. Select the single column marquee tool and then place the selection to the left or right. Go to Select>>Modify>>Expand

6. Fill the marquee with a colour that will stand out, I'm gonna use orange because it looks cool.

7. Right click that layer and go to blending options. Use these settings: Preview

8. Then add some text in a pixel font. I used 04b_8 which can be downloaded from www.04.jp.org

9. Use these blending options Preview Simply go to Image>>Duplicate if you need more than one button.

Simple Orb

Creating a simple orb, complete with glow, in Photoshop using the gradient fill tool and selection tool. You will also be using the feather feature of the selection tool.

Simple Orb

start a new document, size doesn't matter

Take the rectangular marquee tool and alt click it until a circle appears then draw a circle Fill it with black and go to blending options. enter these settings:
Drop shadow: default
Inner shadow: default
Bevel and emboss: size 100
Color overlay: colour of you choice
Gradient overlay: scale 84% you should have something similar to this:

Control and click the layer where you orb is so you select it Make a new layer beneath the orb. Go to select->modify->expand and make it 5 Go to blending options and use these settings: Drop Shadow: default Bevel and emboss: default Colour overlay: 645252 Here is the end result:

Or you can add a pattern like in the image below:

Steel Bordered Orb

1) Open a new file. The size should be at least 250x250.

2) Duplicate the background layer. You should now have two white layers.

3) Select the eliptical marquee tool

4) Select a circular shape similar to the following one:

5) Fill the circle with A6A6A6

6) Use the magic wand tool (press w) and remove the white part of the image.

7) Create a new layer. (it should be transparent)

8) Create a circle in the new layer similar to the following:

9) Fill it with FF00BA

10) Use the magic wand tool (press w) and select the pink circle.

11) Select the layer with the greay circle on it and press delete.

12) Now go to layer>layer style>blending options

13) Select "Bevel and Emboss" with the following settings:

14) Select stroke with the following settings:

15) It will look something like this:

16) Select the layer containing the pink circle and go to layer>layer style>blanding options

17) Select "Inner glow" and enter the following settings:

18) And select "stroke" with the following settings:

19) It will look something like this:

20) Go to filter> render> lens flare

21) Do the first one on the south east of the circle with the following settings:

22) Do the second one on the north west of the circle with the following settings:

23) The Result:

Website Interface Lesson 1

Basic Techniques Tutorial
Part 1: Basic Content Boxes

---

Alright, this tutorial is going to bring you into the world of creating a website using Photoshop. Im going to first make a bunch of mini tutorials on some techniques I use when creating website templates. The first thing that I always make, so that I can get a feel for making the rest of the site, is to make my content box. A content box is the little square/cirlce/area that you will be placing all your text in. This is a very important thing because you dont want it to overpower the text, but you also want it to be appealing to the majority of visitors to your site.

Lets start by creating a new document, 800x500. The reason I have so much space is because I make everything big first, then shrink it down.

Now on your new document, fill the bottom-most layer with D5D5D5 and name this layer Background. No preview needed for this. The next thing we do is select our Rounded Rectangle tool. Now draw, with white as your color and a radius of 20px, a rounded rectangle that fills appoximatley 95% of the document.

Figure 1-2

Now we need to rasterize the layer to make it easier to work with. This is done by right clicking the layer and choose "rasterize layer." After that, press "M" or select rectangle marquee tool and select a good portion of the our rectangle, about 85% of the image and press delete.

Figure 1-4

Figure 1-5

Now we will begin filling our layer. It is best to fill it with a gradient because that makes the image just that much more appealing. Press CTRL+SHIFT+N to create a new layer, name this layer "gradient." Hold control and click the layer named "Shape 1" to select everything contained in that layer and select the gradient tool from your tool pallete. Set the background color to D5D5D5 and your foreground color to E5E5E5. Now in your select area, on your "gradient" layer, drag from top to bottom until you have something that resembles this. Now this is where most people make a mistake, they go to blending options and stroke this layer. That is the wrong way to do it as you will end up with a rigid and not smooth stroke. What we will do instead is create a new layer named "Stroke" and position it below our "Gradient" layer. Now CTRL Click the "Gradient" layer and choose from the menu at the top Select -> Grow -> Expand and expand the selection by one pixel.

Figure 1-7

Now press D to return to your default colors (Black/White) and then press SHIFT + BACKSPACE to bring up your fill menu. Choose fill by foreground color, and press okay. You should havea smooth stroke now.

Figure 1-8

Sometimes you may want a different border color, so mess with the opacity of the "Sroke" layer to get one that better suits your needs. For now, I am going to stick with generic old black. The next thing we are going to do is add a line to the gradient to give it more of a 3D effect.

Start by creating a new layer named "White Line" and then select your 1px Horizontal Marquee tool. Position your mouse at the top most pixel of the "Gradient" layer and click. Make sure it isnt in the black, but one pixel down from it.

Figure 1-9

Now make sure you are on your "White Line" layer and fill the selected area with white. Make sure your foreground color is set to white and press SHIFT+BACKSPACE and Enter and it should all be done for you. It may not look noticeable right now, but it will once we add the other parts of the image.

You might be thinking, "How do I get rid of the excess on the sides?" Easy! CTRL Click your "Gradient" layer and then press CTRL+SHIFT+I to select the inverse. Now make sure you have the "White Line" layer selected and press Delete.

Figure 1-10

Now we are going to start making this thing look pretty. Choose a blue-ish color because blue jsut seems to always work with whites and silvers. I choose 22289F. Now select your Elipse Tool and draw three small circles on the right end of your image.

Figure 1-12

Now Rasterize those layers using the same method from one of the previous steps. Now to make things easier to work with, we are going to merge these three layers togather. Name the layer Circles. Now CTRL Click this layer, go into your "Gradient Layer", do the Select -> Modify, except this time, contract the selection by 1 pixel and press delete. Drag the "Circles" layer below the "Gradient" layer.

Figure 1-13

Now the next step is to fade these circles into the gradient. CTRL Click your circles layer again and make sure your "Stroke" layer is selected and press delte. Select your "Circles" layer again and send the opacity of it down to 34%.

Figure 1-14

This next step might be a little bit tricky, so pay close attention. What you need to do is select another blue color, a little lighter then the one from before and then select the Elipse tool again. This time, draw a big oval in the middle of your document and Rasterize it. Now manuever it above your gradient layer so that the majority of your gradient cannot be seen but you can see the White Line.

Figure 1-15

Now position the circle in a spot where it will be attractive, covers the right side of the image, and you cannot see any of the bottom of our main gradient layer.

Figure 1-16

Now you may notice I am going a bit fast, the reason is because I assume you know basic tasks and have picked up the ones I have mentioned before and know how to do them now.

CTRL Click the "Gradient" layer so that you have it all selected, select the inverse (CTRL+SHIFT+I) and make sure your "Shape 2" layer in your Layers Pallette is selected; press delete.

Figure 1-17

Now, with the "Shape 2" layer selected, send its opacity down to something where the white line is noticeable and the circles are still darked then it. You may need to modify the opacity of the "Circles" layer.

Figure 1-18

OPTIONAL: Now that I am at this point, I have decided that I want my stroke to be a bit lighter, this is okay since the stroke is in a totally seperate layer. Send the opacity of the "Stroke" layer to 21%. You dont have to do this, but for the rest of the tutorial, that is what my stroke will look like.

The next step is to make some sort of seperation between the gradient and the shape. This is not very hard to do. What I did was add a bevel and emboos effect to the layer. Bring up your "Blending Options" pallete for the "Shape 2" layer and mimic the following settings:

Figure 1-19

Now that white line is looking a bit abnoxious, isnt it? What we have to do now is simply drop the opacity of it to somewhere between 20% and 25%. This will make our gradient and shape blend better also. No preview necessary.

The next thing we need to do is make a Layer Set. Name the Layer Set "Top Grad" and place all current layers except the background layer in it, make sure you dont mess up order of the layers and if you do, it shouldnt be hard to place them in the correct order again.

Figure 1-20

To create the bottom portion of our box, we are going to simply duplicate the layer set and flip it vertically, pretty simple, huh? Doing things this way saves us time because we dont need to recreate the same image from before. Before moving this new gradient any, go to Image -> Trim and choose Trim Transparent Pixels. You won't notice any changes, but you have just deleted any parts of that circle we drew that ended up outside of our document.

To give this new grad some individuality, flip it horizontally too. Your document should look like this now: (You may need to reposition the bottom grad a bit)

Figure 1-21

To cnnect the two boxes, we are going make a new layer above the background layer, but under the Top Grad layer set. In this layer, draw black lines to connect the top to the bottom image and then make the opacity of this layer the same as the opacity of your stroke layer. On the inside of the black lines, draw white lines do give the box a beveled appearance. It helps to zoom in really close to the image on this step. If you have lowered the opacity of your stroke layer, you may not notice these white lines very much, but they will make all the difference.

Figure 1-22

To seperate your content area from the background layer, choose your Rectangle Marquee tool, make a new layer and choose all the area inbetween the top grad, bottom grad and the side lines. Name this layer "Body" and fill it with a color that is a bit lighter then the document background, try colors like E5E5E5, E6E6E6, D8D8D8 or any other silvery-white color.

Figure 1-23

Well, we are done, now all we need to do is trim out image. Go to your background layer and hide it. Now go to Image -> Trim and trim by transparent pixels. This should make your image a lot smaller and only make the content box the visible portion.

Figure 1-24

In the next lesson, I will show you how to use this image multiple times and how to create easy to use and attractive interfaces. Make sure you save the PSD of this image because if you dont, you will have to recreate it over and over again and thats no fun.

Good luck, have fun, see what you can do with these images.

A good portion of this tutorial can be used to create attractive top/bottom images for your Proboards forum also :)

Wires

Step 1. Open up a new Document and use these settings

Step 2. Fill the backround with 222222 using the paint bucket tool.

Step 3. Set your foreground color to black(000000).

Step 4. Click on the brushes panel and find the round brush with the diameter
of 13. Hint: adjust the master diameter to 13 to locate it quickly.

Step 5. Create a new layer. Name it Wire.

Step 6. Make a long stroke on the canvas where you want your wire to be.

Step 7. Left click on the wire layer> Blending Options. Use these settings.

Drop Shadow:

Bevel and Emboss:

You should have something like this:

Step 8. Now you we need to add some segments onto it to make it look more wirey.
Make a new Document

Zoom in to 1600% and grad the pen tool and make the pixel on the far left black.
Now go Edit>Define Pattern> Name it "Wire Segmant".

Step 9. Go back to the image with the wire on it and open up blending options.
Use this setting

Texture:

Click OK and your done. This is what I got

Here are some examples of things I've made using this.

I hope you enjoyed reading this tutorial and learned something from it. Wires are one
of my favorite things to make!

3 Pixel Border

Start off with an image that you want the border on. Preview

1) Make sure you flatten your image before you start.

2) Select the canvas (Ctrl+A)

3) Go to Edit>>Stroke and use these settings: Width: 3 px Color: Black (000000) Location: Inside Mode: Normal Opacity: 100% Preserve Transparency: unchecked

4) Click okay. Preview

5) With the canvas still selected, go to Edit>>Stroke again and use these settings: Width: 2 px Color: Any color you want Location: Inside Mode: Normal Opacity: 100% Preserve Transparency: unchecked

6) Click okay. Preview

7) Then again, with the canvas selected, go to Edit>>Stroke and use these settings: Width: 1 px Color: Black (000000) Mode: Normal Opacity: 100% Preserve Transparency: unchecked

8) Click okay. Preview

9) And there it is. The 3 pixel border. The final result

Babe Signature Tutorial

Most of the resources I used, plus extra's...
(in no specific order)

C4D's - Some by me, some not.
C4D1
C4D2
C4D3
C4D4
C4D5
C4D6

I only used 1 Wireframe, but I couldn't remember which one it was, so here is 7 never seen before, all made by me:

Wireframe1
Wireframe2
Wireframe3
Wireframe4
Wireframe5
Wireframe6
Wireframe7

Render:
Click Here

Basic Planets

Forsakens guide to creating Planets
This is my tutorial on how to make planets, its very detailed and long which some people may be put off by, but you should really try it, enjoy, :smile:

The Basic Planet
This first part of the tutorial deals with the basics of a planet and is the same for nearly every planet.

Okay this is my first tutorial so if its bad apologies in advance, this is a tutorial on to create planets in space although this technique can be applied to any object like moons, in this tutorial I'm not aiming to be specific, as I believe you should experiment yourself and that by doing so you gain more than simply following instructions.

So now down to business, open Photoshop (which you probably already have), and create a blank image, now size isn’t really important, but larger is often better, I often choose 1000x1000, as it can be shrunk quite easily to say 500x500, Example 1

Now with this blank image fill the background layer with black, now don’t worry if your using it where the background isn’t black this layer can easily be removed later, now since I'm assuming you haven’t done any planets before (feel free not to do this), so I want you to go to view>show>grid and then take your crop tool, and crop it so that the canvas is aligned to the grid, this will help you later on if you move your planet layers about and get stuck, Example 2

Make a new layer.

So now you should have 2 layers, a black background and a blank layer, select the circle marquee tool, and hold shift to make the aspect ratios of the circle equal, so that our circle is a shaped like a circle, and wait... you guessed it draw a circle, those of you who choose to have the grid may find it helps here, once you have the circle fill it with black, and duplicate it twice, you now should have a background layer and 3 other black circle layers, this basis for your planet done, here’s an example to help you, Example 3

At this point it may be helpful to name your layers, but that is a personal choice.

Now pick a colour, dark colours often work on best planets, greens, blues and oranges work quite well, be sure to steer clear of purple that is a dangerous colours to use. Now with your chosen colour fill the circle of the layer above the background, don’t worry if you don’t see it that’s because there are 2 other black layers above it,

Now go to the top layer and change it to screen, and then add an outer glow, the colours should be the same as the bottom layer only lighter, I find it helpful for it to be changed from screen to normal, anyway this should be very faint but not too faint, and requires some messing around you want to create the effect of a small corona around the planet. Next step is to add an inner glow, same as the outer glow except it should be smaller, now because this bit is slightly difficult here’s an example of what mine looks like at this point, Example 4

Now lets be more specific.
This part deals with the more specific parts of the planet such as the shadow and land

Next step requires some discussions on what you are using the planet for, for example if you placing it in another space scene you need to know where the strongest light is coming from, but as this is just a planet we will go with clichéd bottom right shadow, so now we will apply an inner shadow to the glow layer.

With the shadow being in the bottom right, we will add an inner shadow to the top left which is also the default, now applying the shadow is the same as both glows, and should be the same colours, I like to make my shadows big, and blend them with the background, so eventually you should have want looks like a corona that is thicker in the top left area, Example 5

If you haven’t already set the glow layer to screen do so now.

Now comes the most difficult part, the land, there are many ways to make this, and many methods you could try but they all boil down to 2 simple methods, the image and brushed.

Image
Creating a texture by using an image.

The image is easiest and involves you taking an image, making it a pattern, and using the bucket tool painting it onto the middle layer, still confused well it is very easy, first step is to find a good picture that’s organic, such as trees, plants, rocks, and open in Photoshop, and stretch it to a good size that’s about the same as your planet, I like to keep my textures at 1000x1000, and then go to edit>define pattern, and name it anything you want.

Now go back to your planet, select the middle layer and change it to screen, now you can do this two ways, you can either just use the bucket tool to drop the texture onto the middle layer, or you can add a pattern overlay, I prefer the pattern overlay as I can control the size of the texture and its opacity, but either way works, the only problem with the pattern overlay method is that you have to create a new layer and merge it so that it is no longer an effect, now with this done spherize the layer a few times at 100% so it looks more curved, now go to brightness/contrast and decrease brightness by around 30 and increase contrast by around 30, you also may want to go to hue/saturation and make the land layer around the same colour as the first layer, so now your planet should be beginning to take shape, Example 6

Brushing
Creating a texture by brushing.

As the name suggest this method is brushing, a skill which everyone has, this basically involves using various brushes and colours and creating the land, this method gives you a lot more freedom, but is also harder, good brushes to use here are grunge brushes, basically you want to make the land look like land, unfortunately I cant tell you how to do this correctly as there is no set way, but just experiment see what you can do.

Try both of these methods and see what you like, and there’s nothing to stop you using both, just experiment and see what you can create, for this tutorial I went with the image method, so that’s how the tutorials going to continue, but the next steps can be applied to both the brush or image method.

And the light shall lie
This is the final part and involves creating a shadow on one side of the planet.

Now this final part of the tutorial can be left out as you now have a perfectly good planet, but we want to make ours extra special so we will add a shadow, so create a new layer on top of all the others, now if you doing exactly what the tutorial says your shadow will be in the bottom right else just put it in the opposite corner to the drop shadow, now the main shadow I always do by hand.

Now select a brush a blurry brush (colour black) and increase its size in pixels to about a third of your canvas, mine being 1000x1000, means the brush will be around 750, and then decrease its opacity to about 10%, now the aim of this is to blend the bottom right hand corner into darkness, so move the brush so it is off the bottom right hand side and click a few times, you should have darkened the bottom right hand side slightly, now decrease the brush size by about 100, and increase the opacity by 10%, and click a few more times, now just continue in this fashion, until you have darkened the bottom right corner quite a bit, now bear in mind that this step takes me awhile as I keep erasing, and rebrushing it until I’m finally happy, anyway when you’ve finished you should have something like this, Example 7

Born of Darkness
Now for some final touches.

Okay you have your planet and if you wish you can leave it at that as its perfectly good, but I usually like to add some finishing touches, its recommended you save the PSD before you begin touching up as I often keep changing my mind, anyway this step is up to you, take some brushes, modify the brightness/contrast, merge layers, this is you making those little touches so that in your eyes the image looks right, so now you have your planet, what you do next is up to you, you can make it into anything you want, its good to try this tutorial and experiment with it seeing what you like and don’t like, I hope you enjoyed doing this tutorial as much as I did making it.

Please post what you made and feel free to give me comments and suggestions on this tutorial, and if people like it I may write some more, anyway here’s my final image, enjoy making planets.

Final Image

Cool Guy Signature Tutorial

It's brief, but I think it will be very helpful. Also, please don't rip it, I realize that I made it harder but still.

The render is from http://ownz.deviantart.com/

Crazy Blue's Full Grunge Signature Tutorial

Final Result:

Brushes Used: Official CDP Grunge Set 2 (Mini Set) Official CDP Grunge Set 3 Official CDP Grunge Set 1

The brushes work with versions of photoshop of V.7 +. No Ripping!

Crazy Blue's Mini Userbar Tutorial

Crazy Blue's Smudge Signature Tutorial

Result:

Filter Sig Tutorial

Simple Stock Sig Tut (Mostly filters)

Create this...

...using this tutorial, with various filters and a stock image to create a subtle yet interesting effect.

Fran Tutorial

Here another one of our great tutorials, I hope you all enjoy! Please do not post this anywhere else...

Tutorial featuring Fran from Final Fantasy X

Full Signature Tutorial

1) Create a new file, preferably a small one. I usually use 310x90, because the bigger the sig is, there is more work involved to cover the whole sig.

2) Open your render, and paste it onto the 310x90 file (make sure that the render is cut out, and if not, cut it yourself. =P) Here's the stock i'll be using.

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a375/lpfsigs/Sig%20Tut/render913.png

3) Take out the eyedropper tool, and find two, good colours, on darker than the other.

4) Make a new layer underneath the render (ctrl+click the new layer button) Take out the gradient tool, and draw a line (horizontally) across the canvas. (MAKE SURE that you keep the two colours for the gradients, because you'll need them.)

5) Duplicate your render, and place it underneath the original one.

6) Take out the smudge tool and choose the leaves brush.

7) Smudge the render until you get something that you like. Put the layer's blending option on Overlay or Soft Light, whichever looks better and Duplicate that layer, if you need to. (if you can't see the smudging) You should have something like this:

8) Hide the original render to see if you missed any of the render while smudging. If you have, make sure you can't see the render, because it gets pretty annoying when you're trying to blend the render. If not, move on.

9) Ctrl+Click on the layer to select all of the render and then press alt+ctrl+d, to open the feather window. Feather 20 px, and press ctrl+shift+i to "invert" the selection, and then press delete. (twice if needed. [this is the usual way to blend anyways, so it shouldn't be too hard]) You sig should look like this:

10) Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map. Make sure that your image doesn't invert. If it does, check "Reverse."

11) Place the blending option for the gradient map on something that looks good. For a light sig, I usually use Screen or Linear/Colour Dodge, and for a dark one, Soft Light or Overlay. In my case, I used Colour Dodge. Your sig should look like this:

12) Create a new layer, and go to Image > Apply Image, and click OK. You should now have a complete copy of your sig in that layer. Now, this is your choice.

12 a) For a dark sig, go Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen and then Ctrl+F, after that. This will give you more of a "grungey" looking sig. Place the blending option on Soft Light, Overlay, or Lighten/Screen.

12 b) For a lighter sig, go Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, and make the radius anywhere from three to four pixels. Place the layer on Screen, Colour/Linear Dodge, or Soft Light/Overlay. I sometimes make two layers, one for each A and B.

13) After this, everything is up to you. I usually finish it off with size eight time new roman, anti-alias: strong, all caps text, and a one colour 2-3 pixel border. Here's my result:

I used both 12 A and B. I need to work on my text, though. :P Other sigs that I've used this tutorial for include... This Sig, This G101 SOTW 7 Winning Sig and The sig I used to win February's SOTM. I hope this helps you with your signatures.

---

I got the render in a render pack, at climb-x.com.

Grunge Signature Tutorial

So this is my second tutorial.

Its more of a intermediate ranged tutorial.

I hope everyone likes it.

Took a ton of work. Probably around 3 hours..

The result is really nice as well...

Head and Base image - just like the SSD forum

1) Open Photoshop and make a new document with a size of your choise. I choose the size of SSD's head image.

2) Press ctrl + a and fill (right click the selection and press "Fill") the selection with the colour of your background on your ProBoards forum. In this case I use F3F3F3 like SSD.

3) Make a new layer (ctrl + shift + n) and pick the "Elliptical Marquee Tool" and make a selection like this: Click here

4) Make a selection like the other but in the right side (hold down Shift while making the selection).

5) Pick the "Rectangular Marquee Tool" and hold down Shift and combine it all like this: Click here

6) While still having the "Rectangular Marquee Tool" picked hold down Shift and make a little selection in the right and left lower corners so it will look like this: Click here

7) Pick the "Gradient Tool" (or press G) and choose a any gradient you want. A light and a darker one like this though (you can see what colours I used on it): Click here

7 (continued)) Do the gradient from the top till the bottom in the selection.

8) Make a new layer and right click the selection and choose "Stroke...". For width choose "1" and the colour must be the same colour as your border colour on your ProBoards forum. In this case I use 9B4900. Choose the stroke to be "Centered". Mode set to "Normal" and the opacity set to 100% and with the "Preverse Transparency" unticked. Hit the Enter key on your keyboard.

9) Make a selection with the "Single Row Marquee Tool" in the very bottom and pick the "Single Column Marquee Tool". Hold down "Alt" key and click once in the very left and once in the very right. Hit the "Delete" key on your keyboard once.

10) Make a new layer and make a selection with the "Rectangular Marquee Tool" like this: Click here

10 (continued)) Right click and choose "Fill". The colour set to the lightest part of your gradient. It should now looks similar to this: Click here

11) Now play around with "Elliptical Marquee Tool" and the other marquee tools and fill and stroke and other stuff to make it looks cool and clean and professional. I won't describe how to make one just like SSD because it would lack the originality.

12) ENJOY! Note: To make a base image just do the same but in flipped vertical version.

How to make cool abstract vector shapes

In this tutorial I will show you a quick and really easy way to make funky abstract vector shapes to your in your work. I am using Photoshop 7, and at least basic Photoshop knowledge is recommended if you want to try this tutorial.

1) Open a new photoshop document. 600px by 600px is fine, you dont need a lot of space.

2) Choose the 5pt round fuzzy brush from the default brushes list:

3) Make a new layer and scribble on the canvas with the brush. Remeber your scribble directly effects the shape of your final image, so you can do curvy scribbles for a curly shape, broken-up scribbles for a much more segmented shape, and so on. Do this tutorial a few times and experiment so you can see what's going on.

4) CTRL+click on the layer to select the shape (or go to select>load selection). Choose the marquee tool (press the letter m on your keyboard to select it in the tool box) right click on the canvas and select make work path.

5) The option you are given basically means how much the path follows the scribble. The lower the tolerance value, the rougher your shape will be. You can mess around with the different settings to see the results, chances are you'll find a few values give really great abstract effects for each scribble you make. I'm using 3 pixels because I want a very smooth but chunky effect.

6) You won't see much happen, but that was the crucial step. Select the pen tool (press p on your keyboard or choose it from the toolbox, and dont get frightened now that I've mentioned the p word, you wont actually be drawing anything with it...) In the layers window, click on the paths tab, and click on the path there. You should see a rough pixelly outline appear round your scribble (if it wasnt there already). This just shows you where the path is.

7) With the pen tool selected and the pixelly outline visible, right click on the canvas and select "define custom shape". Give it a name if you like and hit ok. There, you just made your first custom abstract shape! :D

8) Try out the shape. Delete the layer you drew the scribble on, the select the shape tool (press u or select it from the toolbox).

a) Select the shape layers icon
b) Select the custom shape icon
c) Select your new custom shape from the list of shapes

9) Now choose a colour and draw your shape. As simple as that!

Iori Sprite Tag

A nice intermediate signature (tag), which can be done by anyone, because it is very very in-depth. Very little knowledge of PhotoShop is required to do this tutorial, yet you get a smashing outcome.
Hope someone can learn something from this tutorial.
Enjoy :)

Lightning Beam

First off, start a new image. I used 400x600.Fill the image in with 202F40, We now need to make the actual beam, Make a new layer and select your Rectangular Marquee tool and make a selection on your image, quite big, doesn't really matter.

Now press d and x, You should have white as your foreground color, and black as your background color, Now change your background color to 202F40, and select the gradient tool. Start off in the middle and make a straight line to the right, don't go over the line, try and land right on, so you should have something like: Preview

Duplicate this layer (Layer & Duplicate Layer). Go back to the original layer and go to Filter Blur & Gaussian Blur. Set the radius near 6-7 somewhere. Now go back to the duplicated layer, and give it a Gaussian blur of 3. Getting there eh ? Now on the duplicated layer, select the Dodge Brush, select a brush size that only selects the right side, hold shift and take it all the way down so it looks like Preview

Now Gaussian blur the layer once more with a radius of 3. Looks good eh?! Alright, read for the main burst. Make a new layer, and select the Ellipse Marquee Tool ( the circle marquee) and hold shift to make your perfect circle, now fill it in with 202F40. Don't deselect just yet, select the dodge tool, and with a bigger brush paint in the circle, paint over and over the circle until you have something like Preview

Duplicate this layer, and go to Filter > Blur & Gaussian Blur. Give it a radius of about, 24. Now go back to the main circle, and give it a Gaussian blur, Give it a radius of about, 2.3 now. You should have the main circle now, and it should look like this Preview

Now we need to get those lines coming from the ball, to do this, make a new layer. Select the circle marquee tool and make a circle again, go to Edit > Stroke > and stroke it with a 1pixel white border. You should have something like this now. Preview

Now select the eraser tool and erase the side you don't want, Preview

Make a backup of this by duplicating it and hiding it (Press the eye which is opposite the layer itself) Now go to to Filter > Distort > Shear and make a shape, make sure the setting is on as Repeat Edge Pixels. Unhide the back up and make another shape from it by going to the Shear tool, keep doing it until you have a few lines. (You may notice when Shearing some of them, they go outside the actual image, and when you drag it back in, the bit that wasn't showing has gone, to prevent this, drag the image to the opposite side to where the shear goes after being sheariszed) (hope that made sense) Preview

Merge the layers down by pressing ctrl and e. When they're all in one layer, Right click the layer and go to Blending Options. Give it a Outer Glow and set the Opacity to 80. Now, for those sparks, follow this tutorial which can be found at Shiver7. http://www.shiver7.com/tutorials/69/ Now after you've got your brush done, just give a few sparks here and there. I finished with Preview

Making a Sigi by using Brushes and Effects

In this Tutorial, we are going to make a signature with a background of brushworks.

Here we are going to use several effects on our brushworks also. At first, you need to create a New Document in 400 px wide and 150 px height.

First, create a New Layer on it. Overall, when you like to make something in Photoshop, you must create a new layer first. For every action, you must create a new layer and it is something, which is important in Photoshop and especially in this tutorial.

Here we will use several brushes to make a perfect background for our signature. At first, you must create a base for your brushwork on the new layer. For this job, you need to choose a brush, which is good to creating a base. Set foreground and background color as your favorite colors, but attention, one of your colors must be darker than other color. This job will make a great harmony and passage between colors and brushworks in your signature.

Here I have chosen Blue color in two variations, Light Blue (7886F1) and Dark Blue (101C77) as foreground and background color.

Image

Here at first, I have chosen Brushes09_Assassinator, Brushes, which one of my best friends has made, and you can download them from Deviantart to creating a background. In addition, here there is something important, because of making better highlights; I have used the Dark Blue as Background Color:

Image 1
Image 2

Now you need to change this Layer Opacity to 60, from the layer palette:

Image

Now again here, create a New Layer first, as I told you before, before each action first, you need to create a new layer. These layers will help you at the end to add effects on your signature simply. Here you need to choose your favorite brush and choose again Dark Blue color as your brush color and then start adding your brushworks on the new layer. Here I have used Hpsabstractbrushes, which has been made by one my best friends in SSD; you can download it from Deviantart, now you must have something like this:

Image

Now you must go to Menu, Image and from there go to Adjustments and then choose Brightness and Contrast and set the setting like the image on this brushwork layer:

Image

Here again, Create a New Layer, this time choose Light Blue Color and then choose your favorite Brush again and start adding brushworks on the New Layer. Here I have chosen Fractal Brushes; you can download it from Deviantart. After adding brushworks, you must have something like this:

Image

Now, go to Menu, Image, and then Adjustment and from there choose Hue and Saturation and use these setting in it:

Image

Now choose Layer 2, which you have used HPsabstractbrushes on it, go to the Menu, Layer, and from there choose Duplicate layer and make a copy from this layer. Now here choose new duplicated layer from your Layer Palette and then go to the Menu, Image, and then Adjustments and from there choose Brightness and Contrast and set the setting like the image:

Image

Attention! All these effects, which I’m adding on brushworks, are just for example and I add them because I just like to show you how you can add several Effects on your brushwork. You can add your desired effects completely like me and make your own style when you are creating a signature by using brushes. I mean it is completely up to you how you like your signature be.

Now Go to Menu, Layer and from there, choose Flatten Image. Now you have completed first steps and your brushworks, and here we are going to add more effects on the background of the signature. At first, go to Menu, Layer and from there choose Duplicate Layer and create a copy from your image. Now choose this new Duplicated Layer and go to the Layer Palette and from there add this Effect (Inner Glow) on the background with the setting below:

Effect

After adding Inner Glow you must have something like this:

Image

Now go to the Menu, Image, and then Adjustment and from there choose Hue and Saturation and set the setting like bellow:

Image

Then you must have something like this:

Image

Now the background of your signature is ready, just here, you need to add your desired elements on it to make it as a signature, for example, your desired text and if you like a shape or object etc. Here first I am going to add my desired text on the background, but first, I create a New Layer. Here I have chosen Mingle font, you can download from Dafont and its size is 20:

Image

Now I am going to add some effects on my text to make it match with the background. You can choose each effect you like yourself and add on to your text. I have added effects bellow on my text:

Effect 1 Effect 2 Effect 3 Effect 4 Effect 5

Now you must have something like this:

Image

Here I like to add an object on my signature, choose Custom Shape Tool from Photoshop Toolbar and then add my favorite Shape on my signature, but here again before adding the shape, I create a New Layer: Here, I have added a leaf on my signature:

Image

Now press CTRL+T to transform it into your desired position and form:

Image

Here I need to have some effects on my leaf, I add all previous effects which I have added on the text, just here Gradient Overlay will be different like this:

Effect

Now you must have something like this:

Image

Now is the time to adding borders. Choose black color as your foreground color, then zoom into your signature, and make it completely big. Choose pencil tool and set its size as 2px. Now you need to draw borders around your signature like me:

Image

Now, after adding borders, your signature is complete:

It was a simple Tutorial about making signatures and backgrounds by using brushes and brushworks, all I have done here, is just for example. You can use your desired brushes; add your favorite effects, text, shapes, and everything you like. I have made this tutorial especially for beginners and just something to start. And just hope it was helpful for them and for you all. For any questions and problems please post here . Thanks Enjoy

Created By Ellen

Map Making

1) Make a new image, any size, any background (ii's going to change anyways.)

2) Press 'd' to reset colors

3) Filter>>Render>>Clouds

4) Filter>>Render>>Difference Clouds (As many times as you want, but don't overkill it.)

5) Image>>Adjustments>>Threshold (make it so you have equal amounts of black and white.) Invert with Ctrl+I if you want to.

6) Select>>Color Range (Shadows) You should now have selected all black on your black-and-white image.

7) Choose a brown and a green (or whatever color you want your land to be) as your background and foreground colors

8) Filter>>Render>>Clouds

9) Filter>>Render>>Difference Clouds <even #> Times

10) Edit>>Stroke (Black, 50% Transparency, 1px)

11) Select>>Inverse Selection You should have all the white on your image selected now. If not, go to Select>>Color Range (Hightones)

12) Choose a blue and a darker blue as your water (or whatever color you want the water to be) as your background and foreground colors

13) Filter>>Render>>Clouds

14) Filter>>Render>>Difference Clouds <even #> Times

15) New Layer (I will call it 'Overlay')

16) Filter>>Render>>Clouds

17) Filter>>Render>>Difference Clouds (As many times as you want)

18) Set this layer's (Overlay) blending style to Overlay and mess with the opacity and fill to your desire. This gives it some neat lighting effects. (I reccommend Opacity=55%)

19) Apply your own final touches.

Next Level Tutorial

Here another one of our great tutorials, I hope you all enjoy! Please do not post this anywhere else...

Pattern Overlay

This is really simple to do hope you like it. ;)

My starting image is this:

1 You go File-New and make the image size 3x3.

2 You select the pencil tool and change you pallet colour to black.

3 You zoom in and put 3 dots going diagonly like this:

4 You go Edit-Define Pattern and save it as what you want it to be called.

5 Open up the image you want the pattern overlay on and go Layer-Layer Style-Blending Options.

6 A box should appear, click on Pattern Overlay in the box\'s menu.

7 In this section click on the box next to the word Pattern.

8 Now select your pattern and make the Opacity 35 then click ok. Your done, heres what it sould be like:

Patterns: The Mysteries of Tiling

In this tutorial you will be learning how to convert a Photoshop pattern into a background you can use on your website.

An example of the result is the pattern in the back