Easy Way to Create a Lightsaber

Thursday, April 02 2009         34 Comments
Easy Way to Create a Lightsaber

This tutorial will teach you an easy way to recreate the look of a lightsaber. We will start off with a blank, black canvas and will use an image of a lightsaber handle: Next, use the Polygonal Lasso tool, or the Rectangular Marquee tool to make a selection that will be the blade, and fill it with White (in a new layer). You can round the edges with a Brush or Select > Modify > Smooth: Server Intellect offers Windows Hosting Dedicated Servers at affordable prices. I'm very pleased! Finally, open up the Layer Styles for the blade layer and add an Inner Glow and an Outer Glow. Choose your color...

Creating a Fireball in Space from Scratch

Thursday, April 02 2009         40 Comments
Creating a Fireball in Space from Scratch

In this tutorial, we will be showing you how to create a fireball-type planet from scratch. We start with a blank, black canvas and create a circle selection with the Elliptical Marquee selection tool. Create a new layer, and then fill with black. Make sure your color palette is Black and White (press D to reset color palettes), and then goto Filter > Difference Clouds. We will want to repeat this process until we get something we like the look of for our fireball. You can press Ctrl+F to repeat the last used filter. When you're happy with the difference clouds, press Ctrl+L or goto Image >...

Creating a Gold Ring from Scratch

Monday, March 30 2009         57 Comments
Creating a Gold Ring from Scratch

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a nice-looking gold ring using Layer Styles within PhotoShop. We'll being with a blank, black canvas. Choose the Elliptical Marquee selection tool and make a selection like so: Create a new layer and fill this with White, for clarity: Next, right-click the new layer and choose Udplicate Layer. Then Move it up 1px - that's it. Then repeat - duplicate this layer and move it up 1px, duplicate that layer and move it up 1px, etc. Do this around 15 times to get something like this: If you're ever in the market for some great Windows web hosting , try Server...

Creating Bubbles from Scratch

Friday, March 27 2009         33 Comments
Creating Bubbles from Scratch

In this tutorial, we are going to show you how to create realistic bubbles in PhotoShop, from scratch. We will start off with a blank canvas, but choose a nice color, image or gradient to fill it with, like so: We used over 10 web hosting companies before we found Server Intellect . Their dedicated servers and add-ons were setup swiftly, in less than 24 hours. We were able to confirm our order over the phone. They respond to our inquiries within an hour. Server Intellect's customer support and assistance are the best we've ever experienced. Now we will create a selection of the shape of a bubble...

Creating a Book Effect

Thursday, March 26 2009         15 Comments
Creating a Book Effect

In this tutorial, you will learn how to recreate the look of an open book. This simple effect can be used for a nice-looking interface, or just to showcase a story in graphical form.. or whatever you choose. We start with a blank White canvas, and we make a selection for a page in the book, like so: Now we want to distort this to look more like a page out of a book, by curving the middle. Right-click the selection and choose Make Work Path.. Then choose the Pen tool, Add Anchor Point: Zoom in if you need to and then add an anchor point at the top left, like so: Yes, it is possible to find a good...

Recreating a Paper Fold Effect with Shadows

Thursday, March 19 2009         12 Comments
Recreating a Paper Fold Effect with Shadows

In this tutorial, we will be looking at how to recreate the effect of a folded piece of paper using PhotoShop CS4. We start with a blank white canvas: Next, use the Rectangular Marquee selection tool to select a shape like this: Make sure you are on a different (blank) layer than the background (add a new layer if you need to), then choose the Pain Bucket tool and fill with your choice of color: If you're looking for a really good web host, try Server Intellect - we found the setup procedure and control panel, very easy to adapt to and their IT team is awesome! Next, goto Edit > Transform >...

Creating Lightning

Thursday, February 05 2009         13 Comments
Creating Lightning

In this tutorial, we will be looking at how to recreate Mother Nature using PhotoShop. We will be using Filters to create lightning effects. To start off, let's create a new document in PhotoShop of dimensions 400x300. Choose the Gradient tool and a gradient Black to White, then fill in from left to right: Next, goto Filter > Render > Difference Clouds. Feel free to undo and redo to get the lightning effect you want: Yes, it is possible to find a good web host. Sometimes it takes a while. After trying several, we went with Server Intellect and have been very happy. They are the most professional...

Recreating Duct Tape from scratch

Monday, February 02 2009         9 Comments
Recreating Duct Tape from scratch

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create Duct Tape from scratch in Photoshop CS4. We will be using Filters and Layer Styles to recreate the look and feel of the tape. To begin, we will create a rectangular marquee selection, and fill with a gray color, like so: Next, goto Filter > Noise > Add Noise. Choose a relatively small amount (around 5%, but depends on your image size) and Uniform and Monochromatic. Then goto Filter > Texture > Texturizer. Choose the Canvas texture and reduce the scaling to around 75%, and Relief to around 3. Choose Light coming from Top Left. Next, goto...

Recreate the Moon in a Night Sky

Monday, December 29 2008         14 Comments
Recreate the Moon in a Night Sky

In this tutorial, you will learn how to replicate the moon in a night sky. We will start with a black canvas, and add a circle selection with the Elliptical Marquee tool: This will be our - yes, you've guessed it - moon. Fill this selection with White on a new layer, all by itself: We moved our web sites to Server Intellect and have found them to be incredibly professional. Their setup is very easy and we were up and running in no time. Keeping the selection, make sure your colors are black and white (press D), and then create a new layer and goto Filter > Render > Clouds. Clouds are Rendered...

Creating your own Vortex

Friday, December 26 2008         12 Comments
Creating your own Vortex

In this tutorial, how to create your very own Vortex like one of the Default wallpapers with Windows XP. We will start with a blank canvas of 400x300 pixels. Press D to make sure we have the Default colors - black and white, then goto Filter > Render > Fibers. Play with the settings until you get a look you prefer, and then click Ok: Next, choose Filter > Distort > Polar Coordinates, and choose Rectnagular to Polar: I just signed up at Server Intellect and couldn't be more pleased with my Windows Server ! Check it out and see for yourself. Now we will use the Filter > Blur > Radial...