Tiger Poster

The poster assignment is an interesting challenge for me. I have tried my best to figure out what pictures I need for the tiger and what outline I should have. At the first time, I think one poster is ok for me. However, I have 5 different posters at the end. It is strange because I just thought one idea at the first time. Therefore, I want to show you the process in which I made the poster.

I have four pictures from the website named morguefile, a royalty free image source, as you can see below. I think that this source is really useful because we can search a lot of images that we need and you can download high resolution zipped files for them.


http://www.morguefile.com/archive/?display=130162&


http://www.morguefile.com/archive/?display=112568&


http://www.morguefile.com/archive/?display=122681&


http://www.morguefile.com/archive/?display=67936&

Actually, I though of two ball shapes which are facing against each other. I chose it because I want to create a contrast between a trapped tiger and a free tiger. That supports greatly my idea about the problem of trapping tigers.









Now I will show you 4 posters I have made in order. I mean that it is a developing process and the last one is my final work, which I actually print.









I hope everyone will satisfy with what they created. Good luck!

Lighting Effects and Lens Flare

Many elements can affect the quality of an image. An interesting element I want to discuss with you is light. Light can change the look of an image in a new and cool way. There are many categories of images that contain the potential of light such as nature, planets, the outer space, and so on.

These images can be made to look better by tools such as Blur, Lasso Tool, Opacity, and Layer Mode. However, they can be more magical and wonderful with a simple change of the most important element – light.

Lighting effects is used not only for shiny objects but also for focusing on important characters in an event. An example of this is the bright appearance on TV of a key player in a sport game. So let’s get started with the Lighting Effects by doing a simple exercise.


1) Key player:

_ Here is one of the images in our first tutorial in class:




_ Duplicate the layer. Go to Filter – Render –Lighting Effects.

_ In the new pop - up window, you can see many options. However, things that you need to know are Light Type, Intensity, Focus, Gloss, Material and Ambience. The small window on your left is the area where you can control the focusing light on your image. It is better to try each of them so that you understand how they contribute to the effect before you actually start applying it to your image.

_ All we need to do is to make the player who is going to hit the ball becomes brighter while the area around him is darker.
Here is the list of my options but you can choose whatever you like:
+ Intensity: 25, Focus: 100, Gloss: 100, Material: 100, Ambience: 20.

_ And this is my work:





2) The Ball building:

_ Here is a round shape building. We will start using Lens Flare effect for this image.



Source of image: http://www.morguefile.com/archive/?display=185034&

_ Select Filter – Render – Lens Flare.

_ In the new window, you see 4 options for Lens Type. We just only need to focus on the first three. In my opinion, the first and second options are used for objects that produce a lot of heat and light. The third one is used for normal shining objects.

_ Again, I have my own option for the numbers: 91% Brightness, 105mm Prime. I put the flare on the top of the building.

_ Here is my work:





3) The Sun - The fall of a star:

_ The sun: The first picture is the original one. The second picture is edited with Lens Flare. I choose 50-300mm Zoom with the brightness of 98%.



Source of image: http://www.morguefile.com/archive/?display=219889&



_ The fall of a star: Again, I use my previous option. Next, I drag the flare area to the end of the lighting path.



Source of image: http://www.morguefile.com/archive/?display=150112&




4) Cold moon:

_ The cold feeling of the planet is the combination of Lighting Effects and Lens Flare. Remember to do the Lens Fare first, then Lighting Effects.



Source of image: http://www.psdtop.com/blog/photo-effects/the-arch/

_ Lens Flare: 105mm Prime, Brightness: 52%.

_ Lighting Effects: Omni Light Type, Intensity: 13.

_ My work:





5) Water of life:



Source of image: http://www.morguefile.com/archive/?display=219491&

_ Green is the color that we can see easily and it brings a comfortable feeling for our eyes. My work combines the two effects in this order:

+ Lighting Effects: You can choose either Omni or Spotlight to mark the center area around the water ball.

+ Lens Flare: Either 50-300mm or 105mm is ok. You should choose the brightness lower than 50% if you want a good result.

_ Enjoy my final work:

Smoke

Thanks for the comment of ilike2. This is my mistake when I post the tutorial from other sources without careful reference for them. Actually I put a link at the end to every tutorial which tells us where it comes from. However, because the link is at the end, it may not be noticeable to everyone. Therefore, I will put the reference at the top from now on.

Ok! This is my edited entry about smoke. Sorry for the inconvenience I have made for ilike2 and other readers.


A) Create smoke in Photoshop:

Source of tutorial from ilike2Photoshop
Reference: http://ilike2photoshop.blogspot.com/2008/07/create-smoke-in-photoshop.html

If you want to create smoke in Photoshop, this tutorial will be helpful. Here is my work, not good as the original one:







B) Make a realistic smoke animation in Flash:

Source of tutorial from Otutor Blog
Reference: http://blog.0tutor.com/post.aspx?id=204&titel=Make-a-realistic-smoke-animation

In this flash tutorial we will try to create real animation for smoke.

_ You find images with fire or something that could produce smoke. Then import that image to the stage. You should lock the layer so you can work efficiently without changing anything.




Source of image: http://www.morguefile.com/archive/?display=206627&

_ Use the Brush Tool to draw some cloudy shapes with a light gray color.



_ Choose the whole shape, right click and select Convert to Symbol – Type: Movie clip. In the Filters panel, choose Add filter – Blur and set the number X-Y to both 13.



You can also lower its alpha so that we can see through it. Go to the Properties panel, choose Color – Alpha and set the percentage you want.

_ Now make another smoke movie clip. It is good to have different shapes of smoke.

_ Put each of them in separate layers.

_ Create a new keyframe at frame 25 and then drag the smoke to the frame where you want it to stop. Do it for both movie clips.

_ Select the smoke movie clip at frame 25 and reduce its alpha to 0%



+ Right click between frame 1 and 25, choose motion tween. Do this step for both smoke layers.

+ Remember to insert the same number of frames for the first layer if you do not want the animation happens and suddenly disappears.

_ For smoke layer 2, select all frames from 1 to 25 and drag them to frame 15. We do this so that smoke 2 can appears later then smoke 1 and this is more realistic.

And it is done. You can make more variations by adding more smoke movie clips

Car - Castle in the sky

Car trace

Here is my work on the car that we just used in class. One thing that is difficult for me to do is the color because yellow looks like mixed with sunshine. There are 40 layers at the end of my work.

Castle in the sky

We are going to build a castle on the sky, which is quite interesting. First, we begin with two main pictures: the castle and the sky.







1) The castle:

_ We will start with the first picture. Remember to duplicate the layer.

_ I recommend you should use Polygonal Lasso Tool first to have the castle because the lines of castle are straight. After that, you can use Lasso Tool + Eraser Tool to clear the unwanted areas. Now we have our castle.



2) The sky:

Open the second picture and duplicate the layer. Add the castle we have created to the background of the sky.

+ Background:

_Use Motion Blur with the Distance of 25 pixels.

_Then Gaussian Blur with the Radius of 2.5 pixels.

_ Use Eraser Tool to bring the cleanliness to the upper shiny area near the horizon.

+ The castle:

_ Let’s change Blending Mode of the layer to Color Dodge.

_ Reduce the Fill to 91%. Now the castle looks mixed softly with the blurred area near the bottom. Moreover, the Color Dodge mode helps the castle fix its color with the sunshine.


Here is my work, and I believe you can create a better one:

Motion Tween and Shape Tween

There are two types of tween in Flash:

+ Motion Tween:

In Motion Tween, Flash automatically animates the movement of a Movie Clip between two positions chosen by you.

+ Shape Tween:
In Shape Tween, Flash will animate the transition of an object into another object. You can imagine it as the movement of characters in the movie Matrix.


A) Motion Tween example:

_ Select the first frame of the timeline and draw anything you want. An example of this is a car.

_ Right - click on the image you just drew and choose Convert to Symbol → Type: Movie clip.




_ Right lick on the first frame, select Copy Frames and then paste it 40 frames later. On frame 40 move the Movie Clip to other position.
The same way to do this step is right clicking on frame 40 and selecting Insert Keyframe.




_ Click any frame between the first and the last one, right click and select Create Motion Tween.





_ Test the movie in two ways:
+ Com + Enter (Mac), Ctrl + Enter (Win).
+ Click on frame 1 and enter.


B) Shape Tween example:

_ Like the Motion Tween, create the symbol on the first frame and paste to frame 40.







_ Change the object’s shape or you can even draw another different one.

_ Right click any frame between the first and the last frame, select Shape Tween.






_ Test the movie and enjoy the effect.

Source of tutorial from Webzo Studio
Reference: http://www.webzo.org/tutorials/flash/motion-shape-tween.php

Magical Planet

As we are on the process of photoshop training, I want to share an interesting example of using blur effect for images with you. We are going to create an magical landscape with a small wooden harbor and a newborn planet.

First, here are pictures we will use:

1) Landscape:



2) Planet:



3) The Arch:




Now let's begin with our tutorial:

_ Step 1: Open background image in Photoshop and star to work.



_ Step 2: As our landscape is more fantasy, we will make the image softer and blurred. Copy a layer and we will apply Filter – Blur – Motion blur to it. Because the harbor has a long path, we need to blur it horizontally. For the Motion Blur, I choose 25 pixels for the Distance.



_ Step 3: Then we use Filter – Blur – Gaussian Blur and blur the picture strongly. For the Gaussian Blur, I choose 2.5 pixels for the Radius.



_ Step 4: To bring back a real feeling for our landscape, we will lower Fill of the layer to 50%. Next, we use Eraser Tool to clean the area covered by clouds.



_ Step 5: Insert the picture of planet into the background. Remember to move the shining area of the planet to the bottom.



_ Step 6: Let’s change Blending Mode of the layer to Screen. The planet became transparent. However, it seems pasted rather than joined in the background due to dust and stars. Therefore, we will correct it by using Eraser Tool again.



_ Step 7: We choose Dodge Tool (Highlights, 100%) and clarify the bottom of the planet.



_ Step 8: Let’s add a little radiance. We will use Brush Tool to draw a white spot on a separate layer. You can adjust the brightness of the white spot by changing the Flow on the Option Bar. After that, you add another light white area around the spot.


_ Step 9: Use Smudge Tool to spread the white area in which the light rays fall. It is easier to spread the white area around the spot and then turn to the white spot. See how it works:



_Step 10: Use Gaussian Blur. The radiance is ready.



_ Step 11: Now apply the Dodge Tool to the small harbor in order to make a moon path (reflection of light of a planet on the harbor).



_ Step 12: Choose Burn Tool to black out the harbor on each side.



_ Step 13: From now we will not do exactly like the original tutorial because I find it is difficult for me to do. I will do it in my own way, so you can either continue the work like the original one, or just enjoy my way. We will create a beautiful night landscape in which our fantasy planet is shining. Just change the Brightness/Contrast of the layers for background and planet.

Next, take the Brush Tool and change the size from 1 to 4 pixels to draw stars.



_ Step 14: We start with the Arch. Insert it with a new layer.



_ Step 15: Now use Lasso Tool and Eraser Tool to choose the gate that we want.



_ Step 16: Duplicate the layer. We will change the Blending Mode of the layer to Luminosity. Congratulation! You have created a magical landscape.




Now I have something to tell you. The original tutorial includes 28 steps and they are not easy if you miss one step. I find it difficult for me to do the later steps, so I create it by my own way. Another thing to consider is two choices after we have made the fantasy landscape: add the gate or not? I think not adding the gate is better.

Source of tutorial from PSDTOP Blog
Reference: http://www.psdtop.com/blog/photo-effects/the-arch/