Creating a Book Effect

Thursday, March 26 2009

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 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, customer service friendly and technically knowledgeable host we've found so far.

Now hold Ctrl and drag the anchor up a little, like this:

Now we want to do the same to the bottom, so we have something like this:

Goto the Paths window (Window > Paths) and right-click the Work Path, choose Make Selection. We do not want to Feather Radius (0), click Ok. We should now have a selection of our Path:

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!

Now open up the Layer Styles by either double-clicking the layer or right-clicking it and choosing Blending Options. Choose a Drop Shadow, and reduce the Opacity to 45%, Distance to 3 and Size to 5.

Now right-click this layer and Duplicate it. Adjust the Layer Style of this new layer - make the Drop Shadow Distance 1 and the Size also 1. Now choose the Move tool and hit the Left key twice, and the Up key once. Repeat this process for the number of pages you want. In this example, we have three pages:

Now for the other side. Shift-click all the page layers we just created to select them al (in the Layers window) and then right-click one of them and choose Duplicate Layers. Shift-click all the duplicate layers and then do Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal, then move them to the other side of the canvas. You will need to modify the Layer styles - edit each one and uncheck the Use Global Light option under Drop Shadow, and change the angle from 120 to 60. You should be left with this:

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 what we want to do is to Ctrl-click the layer of the top page on the left, and Shift-Ctrl-click the layer of the top page on the right, so that we have a selection like this:

Now create a new layer and move it to the top of all the other layers. On this layer, draw a 1px Gray line down the middle of the book. To make it exact, you can choose the Move tool and use the toolbar alignment to align to center:

You may want to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur the line slightly (around 0.5px).
Next, create another new layer beneath this one and still with the selection of the two top pages, get a large soft brush of gray and paint down the center like so:

If you need to, you can alter the opacity of either of these layers to get the right blend. Also consider adding a background. You should end up with something like this:

Download Project Source - Enter your Email to be emailed a link to download the Full Source Project used in this Tutorial!



100% SPAM FREE! We will never sell or rent your email address!
 

Guys, please take a look at Server Intellect for Windows Web Hosting. I'm very pleased. You will be too. Take a look and see for yourself!

Comments

shebakthar said on 05/27/2009 at 11:52 PM

drop shadow is not working


shinsaber said on 07/13/2009 at 2:00 AM

ya the drop shadow for the layer1 style is not working


David Ghetta said on 10/15/2009 at 9:05 AM

Students would like to buy term papers about creating book effects, using the help of the essay writing organization. You definately will need use <a href="http://www.plagiarismsearch.com">plagiarism detector</a>. Now, you don’t have to worry about getting a failing mark simply because you have been accused of plagiarizing someone else’s work.


http://www.online-casino-guide.de/ said on 12/09/2009 at 3:50 AM

creating a book effect is really a smart idea.This can be used to introduce the graphical interface to books.Mostly the students like it very much.I do not try yet,now I came to know about it,I try it at my own laptop.


CISSP said on 12/09/2009 at 4:38 AM

Wow. great


642-504 exam said on 12/11/2009 at 6:52 AM

Great Work


health coverage said on 01/12/2010 at 12:50 PM

Really great tutorial. I had to quickly create some comic-style images for work, with nowhere near enough time to hand-draw them, and if done with good quality photos this technique works brilliantly. Thanks again – lifesaver!


Rolex Milgauss said on 01/18/2010 at 12:53 AM

thanks for sharing your special ideas with us , thanks and regards to all.


replica watches said on 01/30/2010 at 2:13 AM

Wovvv, that's really great, I am happy to find it. Thanks for sharing it.


replica watch said on 01/30/2010 at 2:16 AM

Very good post. I appreciate the work you guys put in to make this world a better place for the disabled. Thanks!


replica watch said on 01/30/2010 at 2:16 AM

Very good post. I appreciate the work you guys put in to make this world a better place for the disabled. Thanks!


cheap ed hardy said on 02/07/2010 at 11:42 PM

I appreciate the work you guys put in to make this world a better place for the disabled. Thanks!


m65 field jacket said on 02/28/2010 at 3:08 AM

good read thanks for the share


kamagra said on 02/28/2010 at 3:09 AM

great thanks


Replica Watches said on 03/08/2010 at 12:06 AM

thank you


Leave a Comment