Pinewood Design

Using Light & Shade to Bring Text to Life

The best book I’ve ever read on drawing is one called “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain”. After reading it, I’m still pretty bad at drawing, but I did learn a lot about light and shade. In this tutorial we are going to take some very basic principles of light and shade to make a rather impressive looking text effect.

Light Sources

So before we start the tutorial, here is a little diagram about how light might hit an object. Here we have a square object in the middle with light coming from the top left. You can see that where the light hits the object, a shadow is cast on the other side. Note that the shadow is not a Photoshop “Drop Shadow” which makes the object look like it’s hovering above the canvas. Here we want the object to look like it’s a three dimensional thing stuck on the canvas, extruding if you like. Now tell me what other Photoshop tutorial site gives you diagrams? It’s like being back in school!

Step 1

We begin the tutorial by drawing a subtle Linear Gradient from dark grey to darker grey. Note that because we want our light to come from the top left, that’s where the lighter part of the document is.

Step 2

Now we place some text, I’ve used a very cool font called Agency FB which has a condensed, hard edge feel to it. You should make the text a grey-ish blue colour – #c2c8d4 to be precise.

Step 3

Next CTRL-click the text layer and create a new layer above it. In the new layer, with that selection still held, draw a linear gradient of #495a79 to transparent from bottom right to left. So in other words you are darkening the bottom right as shown.

Step 4

Set your foreground colour to Black (you can do this by pressing the letter ‘D’ on your keyboard which restores the defaults).

Now CTRL-click the text layer again and create a new layer beneath the text layer. Now press the down arrow on your keyboard once and the right arrow on your keyboard once. Then press ALT-BACKSPACE to fill it with black. Then press down and right again one time and fill with black. Each time you will be moving 1px right and 1px down. You should repeat this process about 30 times (which is why it’s important to use Alt-Backspace instead of the Fill tool).

Note also that to move the selection but not the fills when you press your arrow keys you have to have one of the Marquee tools on. If you switch to the Move Tool (V) when you press down and right you will actually move the black fill as well as the selection and will just be filling the same pixels over and over.

Step 5

Here’s what you should now have. Now deselect and make sure you are on the shadow layer, then go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur and use values of -45 degrees and a distance of 30px.

Step 6

Set your shadow layer to Multiply and about 40% Opacity and then hold down SHIFT and press the down arrow and then the right arrow. This will move your object right and down 10px each (Shift tells photoshop to go 10px at a time instead of 1). Now you may have some of the blurred parts of the shadow sticking out to the top and left of the object. If this is the case grab a small soft eraser and gently erase away anything which shouldn’t be shaded (remember the diagram at the beginning).

Step 7

Next duplicate the shadow layer, hold SHIFT and move it down and right again. Then run the Motion Blur filter again with a distance of 50px this time and set this layer to Multiply and 20% opacity. This is just to give our shadows more of a trail off.

Step 8

Now create a new layer above all the other layers, hold down CTRL and click the main text layer to select its pixels and back on your new layer fill the selection with White. Don’t let go of the selection just yet though, instead press down and right one time to move 1px away and then hit Delete.

Set this thin white line layer to about 80% Opacity.

Step 9

As you can see the thin white line gives a sort of highlight effect where the light source is hitting the text and gives the impression that the text is more three dimensional.

Step 10

Next we want to create some streams of natural light. Create a new layer above all the others and draw four or five white rectangles approximately similar to those shown (i.e. getting fatter as they go down).

Step 11

Now press CTRL-T to transform and rotate and enlarge the rectangles as shown. Now normally you’d press Enter when you’re finished, but this time don’t let go just yet. Instead right click and you will get a pop up menu showing you other types of transforms you can do. Choose “Perspective”. The reason it’s important to do this in one step is so that you don’t lose your bounding box. So take the top left two points and bring them closer together so that the light appears to be coming from one place and spreading out.

Step 12

Here we have our four strips of “light”. Now set the layer to Overlay and 20% Opacity and then go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and give it a blur radius of 6px.

Step 13

You should now have something that looks like this.

Step 14

Now since those thin strips are meant to be light it would make sense if our highlight layer only showed up where the light was hitting right? So CTRL-click the light layer and then click on the highlight layer from earlier, then while the selection is still on click on the Add Layer Mask button (it’s the one down the bottom of the layer palette to the right of the ‘f’ icon). This will create a Mask that only shows the highlight layer where the light overlaps it.

Step 15

So you could stop here, it’s already looking pretty good, but we’ll finish this effect off by adding some warm lighting.

Step 16

So first of all create a new layer just above the background and fill it with a pinkish colour – #9d506c.

Step 17

Now set the pink layer’s blending mode to Colour and the opacity to 20%. This gives our background a nice reddish-warmth. Over the top of this we can now mix in some yellows. If we don’t put in the reddish cast underneath the result comes out looking overly yellow and not particularly real.

Step 18

Now set the pink layer’s blending mode to Colour and the opacity to 20%. This gives our background a nice reddish-warmth. Over the top of this we can now mix in some yellows. If we don’t put in the reddish cast underneath the result comes out looking overly yellow and not particularly real.

Step 19

Now set the pink layer’s blending mode to Colour and the opacity to 20%. This gives our background a nice reddish-warmth. Over the top of this we can now mix in some yellows. If we don’t put in the reddish cast underneath the result comes out looking overly yellow and not particularly real.

Conclusion

Finally we duplicate the top lighting layer one more time and set it to 65% opacity, then click the Add Layer Mask button on the layers palette again and draw a linear white to black gradient from top left to bottom right. This makes the extra lighting layer fade off as it goes down right.

Download the PSD for this tutorial

written by Pinewood Design \\ tags: photoshop, text, Tutorial

Print Design Single Page: Winner
Soo Jin An
Kookmin University

Part of my life

Profile
Soo Jin was born in Korea and studies Visual Communication at Kookmin University in Seoul. She lives in an urban setting but likes to experience nature. Soo Jin cultivates a roof garden with flowers and trees, and it is a major source of artistic inspiration. She also gains inspiration by talking with and listening to other people. She recently became entranced by vector images but looks forward to experiencing all kinds of graphic design media after her graduation.

Communication objective
Various kinds of expressions exist on an object’s face, just as on human faces. While humans create objects, they do not create their expressions. The face, formed accidentally from an object in everyday life, claims its own existence. As we discover an object’s facial image it evolves into another image through analysis and recomposition. Enjoy the infinite possibilities!

Tools used
All the graphics were generated using Adobe® Illustrator® CS.

More Winners & Finalist Go Here. 

Source: http://www.adaagallery.com/winners/1853.php

written by Pinewood Design \\ tags: Achievement, Adobe, Award, Design, Print, Winner

written by Pinewood Design \\ tags: Achievement, Adobe, Award, Design, Environmental, Graphics, Packaging, Winner

Digital Photography: Winner
Sean Teegarden
Art Center College of Design

True Character

Profile
Sean Teegarden was born, raised, and home schooled in Downey, California, by two awesome parents. From a young age, Sean had a camera in his hands and on many occasions became frustrated with capturing a finger in the lens, covering his artistic compositions. Graduating high school early, Sean went to Cerritos College where he developed his love of photography in the darkroom. His inspiration for imagery comes from experiences in the Boy Scouting Program, his religious background, and love of 1950’s television. Currently, Sean is attending Art Center College of Design. He will graduate in December and work towards attaining his dream job.

Communication objective
It is said that the masters of old would paint in the flaws on their subjects as a finishing touch, a method of making paintings real. In this series, I made true characteristics of these people blatantly apparent. I wanted viewers to see every little detail that many would call flaws — I see them as True Character.

Tools used
Using the file’s Red, Green, and Blue Channels, I found which color contained the most contrast that enhanced the important details. I copied the information and pasted it into new layers. I used a series of blend modes and layer masks to bring out striking detail and retain great value and color. I employed burn/dodge layers to emphasize shadows and finally employed sharpening and blurring to make every little “Character” jump off the page.

More Winners & Finalist Go Here. 

Source: http://www.adaagallery.com/winners/441.php

written by Pinewood Design \\ tags: Achievement, Adobe, Award, Design, Digital, Photography, Winner

written by Pinewood Design \\ tags: Achievement, Adobe, Award, Design, Digital, Illustration, Winner

Large papercut installations

 You can find more from this link:

http://www.petercallesen.com

http://absolutg.blogspot.com/2006/12/large-papercut-installations.html

http://pinewooddesign.co.uk/

White Hand, 2007Acid free A4 115 gsm paper and glue

Little Erected Ruin, 2007
Acid free A4 115 gsm paper and glue

Little Erected Ruin (detail), 2007

Half Way Through, 2006
Acid free A4 115 gsm paper, pencil, and glue

Half Way Through (detail) , 2006

Traces in Snow,

2005Acid-free A4 80 gsm paper and glue

Traces in Snow (detail), 2005

Single Double Bed, 2005
Acid-free A4 80 gsm paper and glue

Fall, 2005
Acid-free A4 80 gsm paper and glue

Fall (detail), 2005

The Impossible Meeting, 2005
Acid-free A4 80 gsm paper and glue

The Impossible Meeting, 2005
Acid-free A4 80 gsm paper and glue

Bridge Over Troubled Water, 2005
Acid-free A4 80 gsm paper and glue

Butterflies Trying to Escape Their Shadow, 2005
Acid-free A4 80 gsm paper and glue

http://pinewooddesign.co.uk/

written by Pinewood Design \\ tags: Art, installations, papercut

Source: http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Iran_drops_dollar_from_oil_deals_re_12082007.html

Don’t know how known/reliable rawstory.com is, so here’s another site validating the same news:
http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=158 … 

Major crude producer Iran has completely stopped carrying out its oil transactions in dollars, Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said on Saturday, labelling the greenback an “unreliable” currency.

“At the moment selling oil in dollars has been completely halted, in line with the policy of selling crude in non-dollar currencies,” Nozari was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.

“The dollar is an unreliable currency, considering its devaluation and the oil exporters’ losses,” he added.

The world’s fourth largest oil exporter, Iran has massively reduced its dependence on the dollar over the past year in the face of US pressures on its financial system.

The United States has successfully encouraged major European and Asian banks to cut their dealings with Iran in a bid to make the Islamic republic give way on its controversial nuclear programme.

Washington has also blacklisted major Iranian banks for alleged support of terrorism and seeking nuclear weapons, charges denied by Tehran.

Iran has reduced its assets in dollars held in foreign banks and urged OPEC to take collective action to price oil in other currencies such as the euro, instead of the US currency which is used across the world at present.

The fall of the dollar, which has weakened considerably against the euro and other currencies in the past 12 months, has affected the revenues of OPEC members because most of them price and sell their oil exports in the US currency.

written by Pinewood Design \\ tags: currency, dollar, Iran, oil

Elave skin care products are being promoted by Irish company Ovelle Pharmaceuticals in a risque viral campaign featuring nude actors. A blonde woman, without clothes, tells the viewer about the safe quality of Elave skin care products, developed with the most reactive skin conditions in mind; eczema, dermatitis and psoriasis. Lab technicians , male and female, in the background wander around totally naked, apparently without any sense of self-consciousness.

The video, featuring nude women and men, is online at www.nothing-to-hide.co.uk. The Elave web site states, “We stand behind our skin care products, so much so that we are prepared to go naked to prove it.” Viewers are asked to indicate that they are 18 or over. No doubt versions used in television broadcasting will be censored in some way – which would make it difficult to say ‘nothing to hide’.

Responses to the Elave campaign are just starting to filter on to the internet. Some say that this is gratuitous nudity, an unnecessary attempt to get the attention of online viewers. Others tip their hats to the courage and nerve of the company to take the risk. There is certainly a link between the sensitive skin angle and the exposure of breasts and genitals – the body parts most sensitive. The actors in the ad do not exhibit any ’sexual behaviour’ towards one another, though it could be argued that the woman with the test tube is playing with innuendo.

The Elave Nothing To Hide campaign was developed by Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand. Filming (in New Zealand) was directed by Brendan Donovan via Prodigy, New Zealand. Post production was done at Images Post. Film crew also went nude to put the cast at ease.

Joanna Gardener, of Ovelle Pharmaceuticals, appears in the advertisement, behind a laptop.

“As a mother of three children, I didn’t think I was the right choice for the front of the advert so we went for someone a bit easier on the eye,” Ms Gardener told The Daily Mail on Saturday.

Ovelle has seen a 500 per cent rise in sales, both online and in the High Street, since the campaign was launched on May 5.

written by Pinewood Design \\ tags: Advertising, Elave, nothing to hide, nudity, skin care, tv

Livingstones, cushions

written by Pinewood Design \\ tags: cushions, Livingstones

 http://www.marcofolio.net/photoshop/alienize_transform_a_person_into_an_alien.html 

In this tutorial is written how to create a very cool looking alien using Adobe Photoshop. Grab a picture of someone and get ready to alienize it!

1. Go to File > New (Ctrl+N) to create a new file. Make sure that you have your background settings to Transparent. Now search for a portret on your PC to use and add it to your newly created file. For this tutorial I used a picture of Tom Cruise to alienize (Source file ). Ofcourse you can use a picture of your friend, a family member or even yourself.

   

2. Grab the Eraser Tool (E) and erase the eyes. Now use the Clone Stamp Tool (S) to clone parts of the cheeks over the nose. It’ll look like the nose is erased. Use the Healing Stamp Tool to fix any not natural looking parts on the place where the nose first was.

   

3. Go to Filter > Liquify Tool (Shift+Ctrl+X) and a new window will show. Use the Forward Warp Tool (W) in this window to strech out the empty place where the eyes first were. I used a brush with a size of approxamitely 30 pixels. Strech it untill it has the shape of an alien eye. Press OK to accept the changes.

   

4. I used some alien eyes that I created before (Source file ) and pasted them in the layer behind the face. Scale the eye using Transform (Ctrl+T) untill it’s at a right size. Use the Burn Tool (O) to make the areas around the eyes a little bit darked so it will look more realistic.

   

5. Open up the liquify tool by going to Filter > Liquify Tool (Shift+Ctrl+X). Again, use the Forward Warp Tool (W) and strech out the ears. This time I used a brush with a size of 90. Press OK to save the changes and if you want, use the Burn Tool (O) to darken parts of the ears.

   

6. Get ready to change some colours using Color Balance (Ctrl+B). Play around with the Color Balance and Tone Balance untill you think you have something alien-like. I used these settings:
   1. Shadows: 0,20,0
   2. Midtones: 0,20,0
   3. Highlights: 0,40,0

   

7. Grunge your face. You can use several options for this, for example you could use a grunge brush. Here I used a pattern that I had on my PC (Source file ). On a new layer, cover the face with the whole grunge pattern using Transform (Ctrl+T) or copy-pasting the pattern next to eachother (See left image below). Set the Blending Mode of the grunge layer to Color Burn and the Opacity around 25%.

   

8. Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) and select the forehead of the face (See left image below). Duplicate layer part (Ctrl+J) and grab the Free Transform Tool (Ctrl+T). Strech the forehead by selecting the middle square and drag it upward. Merge layers (Ctrl+E) (See middle image below).
   Draw facial lines on a new layer using the Brush Tool (B). These lines can be used for detail. Select the lines on the layer and go to Blending Options. In this new window, go to Bevel and Emboss. Use the standard settings but change: Style: Pillow Emboss. I used these values:
   1. Depth: 51%
   2. Size: 1px
   3. Soften: 1px

   When satisfied, press OK to save the settings. Grab your Burn Tool (O) and burn the lines so that it’ll look more realistic (See right image below).

   

9. Create a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N). Draw some veins around the eyes using the Brush Tools (B). I used a brush size of 2 pixels (See left image below). Select the content of the veins layer by Ctrl+Click on the image of the layer. Now you should have the veins selected. Select the layer of the face by clicking on it. Now duplicate the selection of the veins (Ctrl+J). You should get a new layer on top of the layer of the face. Delete the layer with the veins that you drew. Now go back to the layer with the outer lines of the veins. Give them color by opening the Color Balance (Ctrl+B). Play around untill you’re satisfied with the colors. Give the layer Soft light or Hard Light to give it more effect. Merge all layers back together (Ctrl+E). Open up Color Balance (Ctrl+B) again and play with the full colors of the image (See right image below).

   

10. Repeat the previous step, but now create some veins on the head (See left image below).

    

11. Adjust the levels of the image by opening the Levels panel (Ctrl+L). Change the levels of the image untill you have a nice, realistic looking face.

    

And there you have it, your own created alien. This is my final result. Be creative and feel free to post your final result in the comments.

Some people in the comments reported that this tutorial is a copy of one that is posted on worth1000. I checked out the tutorial and I have to admit: It does look-a-like, but it’s not a copy. Furthermore, the tutorial on Worth1000 is way much harder and more for professional than this one.

 Source from: http://www.marcofolio.net/photoshop/alienize_transform_a_person_into_an_alien.html

written by Pinewood Design \\ tags: alien, photoshop, Transform, Tutorial