Photoshop: A4 Paper

This is the result of this tutorial:


I'm using Photoshop CS3

1. Open up a new document 600x600 pixels.
2. Create a new layer and fill it with white.
3. Go to Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options (or double-click the layer). Use these settings:
4. Create a new layer. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool and use these settings:(This is the ratio of an a4 paper, if you'd like to create a different shape use style: normal)
5. Make a selection like this:
6. Fill the selection with #f8f8f8
7. Now we're going to add some texture to the paper. Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and use the following settings:
8. Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options:
9. Change the opacity of the layer to 90-95%. You're done!

This is my final image (I just duplicated and rotated the layer):

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GIMP: Custom Brush

This tutorial will show you how to create and add a custom brush into your GIMP program.
This tutorial takes under 5 minutes if you already have made or found an image you want to use as a brush. I'm using GIMP 2.6.



1. Create a new document or open up a picture you'd like to save as a brush.
I started out on a 200x200 pixels big canvas. I did this, and then I cropped it.
2. Make the "Background Layer" invisible by clickin on the eye next to it in the "Layers Dialog" Window" (This is to make the brush transparent, I don't want the background when I use my brush).
Go "File"->"Save as", and save it as a GIMP Brush (.gbr).

In Linux (Ubuntu 8.10) save it in your "/home/USERNAME/gimp-2.6/brushes/" folder.

In Windows XP save it in your "C:\Document and Settings\USERNAME\.gimp-2.6\brushes\"
4. Select the "Brush Tool" and then click the select brush button, then open the "Brush Selection Dialog" by clicking the brush icon down in the right corner of the popup window.

5. In the "Brush Selection Dialog" click the small, grey arrow in the upper left corner, then "Brush Menu"->"Refresh Brushes".
6. Now you are done, create a new document and test your brush.
This is my result:


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GIMP: Simple Web Design

This tutorial takes about 15-20 minutes to finnish. I'm using GIMP 2.6.
This is the final result:




1. Create a new document. I usually start out at a quite large canvas, later on i crop it to fit the work that I've done. Mine is 1024x768 pixels big.

2. Create a new layer, name it "Header".

3. Select the "Rectangle Select Tool" from the "Toolbox" and make a selection at the top of the document. The size of this isn't really important, but if you want to know mine is about 120 pixels high.

4. Select the "Bucket Fill Tool" from the "Toolbox". Click on your foreground colour and in the "HTML notation" text field you type: a0c2de.
Then you press OK and fill your selection with the colour.

5. Now choose the "Text Tool" and write something in your header layer. Make the text white by clicking on the "Color" button in the "Text Tool" settings dialog. The font I use is called "Bitstream Vera Sans Bold".

6. Time to create a new layer. Call it "Menu", make sure it is below your "Header" layer.

7. Select the "Rectangle Select Tool" from the "Toolbox" and create a new selection, you may overlap the "Header" layer since the layer you're working on should be below it. Make the selection around 30-40 pixels high.

8. Now select the "Bucket Fill Tool", set your foreground colour to 76a0c4 and fill your selection.

9. Select the "Text Tool" once again, now it's time to write the options in your menu. Make sure the text color is set to white, then click on your menu box and write your menu options. Mine are "home", "about" and "tutorials".

10. Align your header and menu text by snapping them onto a guide. Create a guide by click and drag from the left (or top) rulers of the document. Drag it about 40 pixels from the left edge. You can see coordinates in the bottom-left corner of the document window.

11. Create a new layer, name it "Side bars". Drag it below the header and menu layers. Select the "Rectangle Select Tool" and make a small selection somewhere in your canvas.

12. Look in the settings dialog for the "Rectangle Select Tool". Fill in 0 in both of the position fields. In the size, type 20 and 768.

13. Fill the layer with the same color as the menu.

14. Now do steps 12 and 13 again but this time the position of the rectangle should be 800 and 0.

15. Select the crop tool and crop your image by the edges of the "Sidebar" layer. Being careful and accurate is good in this step.

15. Your document should look something like this by now:

16. This step is very simple, use the "Text Tool" and write your own welcome greeting and first paragraph.

17. Create a new layer and call it "Content bar". Create a rectangle, choose your own width, mine is quite thin. In your document window, click "Select"->"Border" and apply a 3 pixels wide border. Fill it with the same colour used in the menu and the "Sidebar" layer.

18. Now you are basically done. Here is what mine looked like after some tweaking of the "Content bar" layer. I hoped you enjoyed the tutorial.


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Photoshop: Custom Brushes

In this tutorial I'll show you how to create custom brushes.
I'm using Photoshop CS3.

1. Open the image you want to turn into a brush, it can be a photo or a simple shape it doesn't matter. I'm using this leaf that I found at www.freeimages.co.uk.
2. Select the area of the image that you want to turn into a brush. Like this:
   (I used the Rectangular Marquee Tool)
3. Go to Edit > Define Brush Preset. Name the brush to something descriptive, I named mine "leaf".
4. Select the brush tool by clicking B or by selecting it in the toolbox. Now you should be able to see your new brush if you click on the little arrow next to the brush thumbnail.
5. You can use your brush any way, this is an image I created with mine:
   

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Photoshop: Change the Color of a Car

In this tutorial you'll learn how to change the color of a car.

I'm using Photoshop CS3.

1. Open the picture you want to edit.
2. Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation...
   Press OK twice.
3. Fill the adjustment layer with black. The areas of the adjustment layer that is white is affected by the color, the areas which are black are not.
4. Now you'll have to select the areas of the car that you want to color. I used the pen tool but you can use any method. Select the adjustment layer and fill the selection with white.
   This is my selection:
   
5. There are some problems with this selection. There are things inside the selection that i don't want to change the color of. To solve this i select these items and fill them with black (on the adjustment layer).
   
6. Now double-click on the adjustment layer's icon (the one with the slider) and the Hue/Saturation box should pop up. Check Colorize. Now you can change the color of the car by sliding the Hue, Saturation and Lightness sliders. When you're done press OK.
7. Often there are mistakes where the old color still shows, to correct this grab the brush tool and paint white on these areas
   
   On this image you can see some of the red:
   Fixed:

You're done! This is my final result:

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GIMP: Text effect (Outline + Mirror)

In this tutorial GIMP 2.6 is used, the tutorial takes about 10 minutes to finnish.
This is the result:





Part 1: Outline

1. Create a new document, the size of it doesn't really matter. Mine is 800x600 pixels.
2. Select the text tool from the Toolbox and choose a font of your choice and write anything you want. I chose the “Liberation Sans Bold” font, fontsize 45.
3. In the “Layers” window, right click your new text layer and choose “Set layer boundary size”. Set the width to 600 and the height to 87. Then you click on the “Center” button. To perform the task and close the dialog, press “Resize”.
4. Now duplicate your layer (Right-click and choose “Duplicate Layer”) and rename it to “White” (Double-click and write). Right-click the layer and choose “Alpha to selection”.
5. In your document window, click “Select” and then “Grow...”. I chose 2 pixels growth (but that depends on what font size you have).
6. Now in the same window, click “Edit” and then “Fill with BG color”, in this case it should be white, if it isn't change it to white and redo the step
7. Duplicate the layer and rename it to “Black”. Right click the layer and choose “Alpha to selection”.
8. Now you'll grow the selection 2 pixels again. Click “Select”, in your document window and then “Grow...”.
9. Click the “Edit” button and then “Fill with FG color”, it should be black or else change it and redo the step.
10. Now change the layer order, The original text layer on top, second should be “White” and third “Black”.

Congratulations, now you have created a text with a fancy outline!
Now we're moving ahead, down below the mirror effect is explained.

Part 2: Mirror

1. Duplicate each one of your layers (Original text layer, “White” and “Black”) and make them one solid one called “Mirror”.
2. Do this by duplicating each layer, put them next to each other on top of the three original ones and then right click on the top one, choose “Merge down”. Do it twice and your done, don't forget to rename it though.
3. In you main document window, click on “Layer”->”Transform”->”Flip vertically”.
4. Now choose the “Move Tool” from your “Toolbox” and, after you clicked and press down “CTRL” (then the layer will go straight down), drag the layer down so only the edges of the layers touch. Then move the layer down in the layer list, should be fourth in the list, just above the “Background” layer.
5. Choose the “Blend tool” in your “Toolbox”. In the tool properties, set the gradient to “FG to Transparent”. Then set your foreground color to white.
6. Hold down “CTRL” and start your blend from the middle of the “Mirror” layer and then drag the line upwards to the middle of your original outline text layer(s).

Congratulations once again! You're done!

Please leave a comment if you like this tutorial.

Here is my final result:

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