Photoshop Space and Planet Tutorial

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Edmonton Website Design

Photoshop Space Tutorial

The techniques below will show you how to create an image similar to the final result I have obtained below although the image below took 3 hours to paint with alot of fine detail work, you will still get the idea

Photoshop Stars

Follow the tutorial steps below to create the faint background stars.

Create monochromatic noise

Image >> Adjust >> Brightness/Contrast. Play with settings until you get a result similar to above.

Repeat the first step

Repeat the brightness/contrast adjustment again, repeat these two steps repeatedly, 6-8 times tends to provide a nice dense yet realistic star field.

Nebulas

Create a new layer with a black background and add the difference cloud filter. Filters >> Render >> Difference clouds. Make sure to have your foreground and background colors to black/white which will give you the constrasty ‘vain-like’ effect. Press CTRL-F to repeat the filter multiple times until it looks detailed.

Set the new cloud layer to the blending mode of Screen and set the Fill or Opacity to around 33.

Merge the two layers together so you are left with only one. Then using the dodge and burn tools I simply used a round soft brush to paint values higher and lower to make things more dynamic.

Add a colorized hue layer and select a color you would like to work with this will adjust the gray tones to new monochromatic tones. You may also choose to create multiple hue layers and mask them in order to vary the colors. Once finished merge all these layers to the bottom one.

Using the color dodge tool with a small soft brush start very small ( around 2 or 3 pixels ) and click repeatedly until the are is white, make the brush slightly bigger, and press a few less times, make the brush bigger and repeat until it appears glowing.

Photoshop Planets

On two new layers, create two black circles which will become planets.

With a planet selected take a round soft brush and press and drag along the outside of the selection which will fill in the lit side. Continue to play around with this, it takes careful lighting to get the desired effect.

Select each planet and save it as a new selection for use later when merged with our bottom layer. Now merge the planets with the bottom layer.

Now with the layers merged its easier to use the color dodge tool to brush the edge of the planets making them ‘glow’.

Use the lens flare filter and set the flare point to the lit point of the planet which adds nice depth to the image. The result is not as pretty as the sample above, but I could not possibly document the level of detail work that really goes into an image like that but these techniques will get you heading in the right direction.

Create an Awesome Grass Texture in Photoshop

1. Bring up Photoshop and create a new document at a size that you like. I used 500px by 500px
2. The first thing we need to do is make a dirt background to show through from underneath the grass we will create. Set your foreground and background colors to black and white. A shortcut for this is to restore Photoshop’s color defaults by pressing ‘d’ on your keyboard.



3. Rename the background layer you are working on, call it dirt, or something applicable. (We will be using a couple layers in this tutorial so this will help organize things.



4. Go to the toolbar at the top and click filter->render->clouds. This will give us a nice base to work from.



5. Add some noise and interest to our dirt. Click filter->noise->add noise. Change the amount to 44%, the distribution to gaussian and make sure monochromatic is checked on. (All these types of settings are merely suggestions, it’s by tweaking these settings, that you will really begin to get a grasp on Photoshop filters.)



6. Add a gaussian blur to the dirt layer. Click filter->blur->gaussian blur. Set the radius to 0.9 pixels.



7. Let’s add one more filter to this dirt layer. Click filter->brush strokes->splatter. Set the spray radius to 21 and the smoothness to 2.



8. Now we need to give the dirt layer it’s color. Click image->adjustments->hue/saturation. Make sure to check preview and colorize. Then change the setting to a nice brown. I used: Hue: 49, Saturation: 29, Lightness: -38. Click OK.



9. OK, we are now finished with the dirt layer. That gives us a nice texture and color underneath the grass we are about to create. Let’s start on the grass. Create a new layer and name it “Grass.”
10. Change your background color to a grassy color green, I used, #52782F. Hit ‘ctrl, backspace’ to fill your current layer (Grass) with the green color you selected.
11. Add some noise to your new grass layer. Click filer->add noise->noise. Choose 30% for the amount, gaussian for the distribution, and check monchromatic. Click OK.



12. Blur the grass layer. Click filter->blur->gaussian blur. Change the radius to 0.9 pixels, click OK.



13. We are getting closer, but it still doesn’t look a whole lot like any grass I’ve ever seen. We can use a couple of wind filters to lengthen the grass and simulate the look of blades. Click filter->stylize->wind, and change the settings to: method, stagger and direction, from the right. Click OK.



14. That looks a little better, but grass doesn’t grow all in one direction. So we need to add a little more direction and interest to our layer. First click image->rotate canvas->90 CW. Click OK.
15. We are going to repeat the last two steps now, but go in the opposite direction. So go to filter->stylize->wind again and choose stagger, from the left. Click OK.
16. Now flip the image so the grass looks verticle. Click image->rotate canvas->90 CCW. Below is what I’ve got so far…



17. I think this grass could use a little more contrast. Change the levels by clicking image->adjustments->levels. Drag the white and black sliders towards the middle till you get the variance you are after. Click OK.



18. This is already a pretty useful grass texture, but we are going to take this tutorial a bit further. If all you need is the grass, you may want to jump down to the steps on masking to reveal some of the dirt layer underneath. Otherwise, stick with these steps to add some lines to our field of grass to make it look like a football field. First off create a new layer, make sure you add it to the top of the layers (ie above Dirt and Grass), and name this layer Lines.
19. Grab the brush tool (’b’ is your keyboard shortcut). Open up you brushes palette, window->brushes. Locate and click on your watercolor loaded brush 63 (shown in the image below). This is a cool Photoshop brush with some rough edges.



20. Change your foreground color to white. Start somewhere in the bottom left and click and drag toward the right side. You may have to try a couple times (if you are like me) to get a straight enough line. If you mess up just hit ‘ctrl, z’ on the keyboard to undo the brush stroke you drew.



21. Use the same brush but scale the width down to about 45 pixels, either by pressing the ‘[’ on the keyboard or locating the size options in the properties box at the top for brushes. Make a line perpendicular to the first line you drew, going from that line to the bottom right hand corner.
22. Add noise to the lines. Click filter->noise->add noise. I used 11% for the amount.



23. We should make the lines look like they are painted into the grass so we are going to add a subtle inner shadow. Double-click next to the name in the layer palette (if you are following along it should be lines), this will bring up the layer style dialog box. Check inner shadow and change the opacity to 60, the distance to 4 and the size to 4. Click OK.



24. The lines are starting to make sense on the field, but let’s try to blend them even more so. Change the opacity to 90 and the fill to 95.



25. Now we are going to put the 50 yard marker on the field. Click on the text tool and in the properties for the text tool at the top of the screen, change your font to a stencil type font. I used ’stencil std’ but you can use whatever you think works best. Just a quick side note, their are many really good free font sites out there, one of my favorites is www.dafont.com. Change the font size to something like 72 (we can adjust the size later) and the color to white. Now click anywhere on the field itself with the text tool still selected. This will create a new layer at the top of the layers for us. Now type 50.
26. Hit ‘ctrl, t’ on the keyboard to bring up the free transform tools. Hover over the middle of the 50 and click and drag it into the correct area. Then resize it to your liking by clicking and dragging any of the corners out (if you’d like to keep the proportions hold shift down while you drag). Finally, rotate the angle to the way you’d like. Hover over a corner until you get a double arrow with an arch for the curser, then click and drag.



27. Convert the 50 layer to a smart object by right clicking (ctrl click on the mac) on the layer and selecting convert to smart object. This will allow us to handle this layer just like the others, in this case we need to add a filter. Keep in mind that once you convert a text layer to a smart object you lose the ability to change the text.



28. Now we add the same amount of noise to this layer as we did with the lines. Because the last filter we used was noise, all we have to do is click filter->add noise
29. Next up, we need to put the inner shadow on the 50 layer. Right click on the Lines layer and choose copy layer style. Then right click on the 50 layer and choose paste layer style. This will copy and paste the same layer style properties to the 50.



30. That looks pretty cool, but their are a couple more things we can do. First off, we still have a dirt layer underneath, that we’d like some part of showing through. Let’s put all the layers besides the ‘Dirt’ on their own. Click on the 50 layer, then with the shift key held down click on the grass layer to highlight everything but the dirt layer. On the keyboard hit ‘ctrl, shift, alt, e’. This will place all these layers on top by itself. Rename this layer ‘Field’. Then hide 50, Lines and Grass layers by clicking on the eyeball icons near each one. All that should be showing now is ‘Field’ and ‘Dirt’.



31. Add a layer mask to the ‘Field’ layer, by clicking the mask icon at the bottom of the layers palette.



32. Now we will paint on the layer mask to reveal some of the dirt layer underneath. Change the foreground color to black. (Black reveals and white hides).
33. Grab the brush tool again and open up your brushes window. Now click on the small arrow shown below to reveal all your brushes you have. Grab your favorite grunge brush set and click OK. If you don’t have grunge brushes, you can play around with what may work. However, I would suggest you head on over to bittbox, deviantart or brusheezy to find some grunge brushes you can use, they will come in handy often. Then place the brushes into your Photoshop brushes for use, you can learn some more about that and creating your own in this article.



34. Now that you have a grunge brush you like begin painting black on the mask of the ‘Field’ layer to reveal the dirt layer underneath. Subtle dabs here and there work best, don’t overdo it, however if you do, you can always paint white back on the layer mask (which is the joy of using them )



35. Their is one more thing I did on mine to help the overall feel of a field with lights, and that is a nice lighting effect. Click back to the field layer, not the mask, and click filter->render->lighting effects. The defaults for spotlight aren’t bad, but play around with the sliders and the spotlight thumbnail on the left side. When you like the preview click ok. Below are the settings I used.

hat’s pretty much it. I finished my field off by playing with the levels to increase the contrast and cropping the image to make it more horizontal. I hope this gives you a good idea of the power of filters in Photoshop.Below is my finished field.

the source : myinkblog.com

Simple organic shapes in Photoshop

Lately I seem to be inspired by geometric forms and patterns in general, and today especially with a bit of an organic touch. I came across a very inspiring image months ago that uses an intersting technique, but I seem to have lost the URL. Today I thought of creating my own version because it seems like an interesting thing to explore. As usual I like to keep things simple. So I experimented a bit and I ‘ve found an easy way to create something that looks rather complex. Take a look at this…

Create the shape

Select the Ellipse Tool from the Toolbox. Draw a circle holding down the Shift Key. Make sure your Rulers are turned on. Go to View > Rulers or hit command/control + r. Drag a horizontal guide from the top Ruler to the middle of the circle. Hit command/control + t to rotate the circle 45°. Hold down Shift Key while rotating the circle or just enter the value of 45 degrees in the rotate option field in the Tool bar at the top.

Select the Direct Selection Tool (white arrow) from the Toolbox. Click on the right segment of the path of the circle and hit the Delete Key. Now select the Pen Tool and click in the top right point of the circle where you have just deleted the segment of the path to redraw this part as show above in the image on the right. Hold down the Shift Key and click somewhere on the guide so you draw a perfect 45° line. Click in the bottom right point of the circle shape (that now looks more like a drop of water laying on its side).

Add Linear Gradient Mask

Add a mask to the layer, by first selecting the layer and then clicking the Add a mask option button at the bottom of the Layers panel. Make sure foreground and background are respectively set to white and black. Hit the D Key once and if needed use the Switch foreground and background arrows so white is your foreground. In the Toolbar make sure the gradient picker is set to Foreground to Background. Select the Gradient Tool from the Toolbox and click on the left of the shape, hold down Shift Key and drag a line towards the other side of the shape. Release the mouse.

Duplicate and change color

Duplicate the layer by dragging the layer over the Create new layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. Rotate the shape 180° and scale it a little bit. Give the shape a slightly different color. In my example I go from red to hot pink and purple. Move it in place as shown in the image above. You probably need to adjust the gradient mask again. Just select the mask icon in the Layers panel. Make sure foreground and background are respectively set to white and black and that the gradient picker is set to Foreground to Background again in the Toolbar. Select the Gradient Tool in the Toolbox. Hold down the Shift Key while dragging a horizontal line, this time from left to right.

Build a ‘pile’ of shapes

Repeat the previous step until you’ve created a pile of shapes as shown in the image below.

Group in a Layer Set and add a Radial Gradient Mask

Select all layers in the Layers panel. Go to the panels menu (located at the top right of the panel) and select the New Group from Layers… option. Enter a name and click OK. Click the Add a mask option button at the bottom of the Layers panel. Make sure foreground and background are respectively set to white and black again. Select the Gradient Tool from the Toolbox and select the Radial Gradient option at the toolbar at the top. Make sure the gradient picker is set to Foreground to Background again. Drag a vertical line (hold down Shift Key) from the center of the pile towards the top.

Duplicate the ‘pile’, rotate and re-color

Now duplicate this group by dragging the folder icon in the Layers panel over the Create new layer icon at the bottom. Hit command/control + t and enter a value of 180° to turn the pile upside down. Open the folder icon in the layer to reveal the layers. Double click each layer shape 1 by 1 to change its color. I started with green for the smallest shape and changed it gradually to blue. Then I moved my pile upwards so that the smallest shape is somewhere in the center of my canvas. I duplicated the my green-blue pile, rotated it 180° and moved it in place. As final touch I added a radial gradient in the background, using a solid color and a radial gradient mask.

Finalizing

Last but not least I played around with the layer modes. I’ve used the Lighten mode on the green-blue piles and used a transparency of 50% for the top pile and 100% for the bottom one. Oh, and before someone asks, the font I’ve used is FF Cocon. Hope you enjoy this tutorial. Thanks for reading

tutorial source : Veerle’s blog