3D Block Text - Tutorial

Here is a nice little tutorial that tells you how to create text that looks like it has been assembled out of small 3D blocks. We of course need only Photoshop for it. The final result is shown below:




Step 1

In this tutorial I will show how you can make letter ‘L’ with this effect. But you could use the same principle to create any other letter or word. First up open up Photoshop and create a new document of size 500px X 500 px. Grab the Rectangle tool from the palette and with the foreground colour selected as #2998ff draw out a small square of size about 15px by 15 px as shown:

Now duplicate this layer (Ctrl+J) and place the new square block below it as shown.

Now keep on duplicating the blocks to trace out the ‘L’ shape as shown.

After you have created the L shape, you don’t need the blocks to remain in separate layers. So Ctrl+Click on all the block layers on the layer palette to select them and then Right Click and choose ‘Merge Layers’. Rename this layer to ‘Lbottom’

Step 2

Now you will need to distort this layer a bit so as to change the perspective and give it a sort of 3D look. For this, while having the Lbottom layer selected, press Ctrl+T to transform the layer. Now right click on the canvas and select ‘Distort’.Adjust the top middle handle of the transform box so that the L assumes the following shape:


Now we begin to add the 3rd dimension to our L. This is done by creating a number of duplicate layers each separated by 1px. To do this, first select the ‘Lbottom’ layer and select the Move tool on the toolbar. Now, with the Alt button held down, press the Up arrow key on your keyboard to create a duplicate layer that is placed 1px above the current layer. While still keeping the Alt button down, keep pressing the Up Arrow key about 11 more times so that you have 11 layers stacked one on top of the other. Select the top most layer on the layer palette and rename it to ‘Ltop’. Apply the following layer style to it:
It should look like this now:


Now select the lower most layer ‘Lbottom’ and apply the following layer style to it. (We are creating a shadow with this layer)


After you apply the style, with the move tool selected, press the Right arrow key 2 times so that we create a sort of shadow for the L.
Now with the Lbotttom layer selected, choose Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and select a value of 1.4 pixels. You should get the following shadow now:


Now select all the layers on the layer palette between ‘Ltop’ and ‘Lbottom’ (You can select a layer and Ctrl+Click on other layers on the layer palette to add more layers) and merge them as we had done before. Rename this layer to ‘Lmiddle’. Apply the following layer style to this layer.


We get the following result:

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Using Multiple Colors with Photoshop Brushes

Using Multiple Colors with Photoshop Brushes Tutorial
by Stephanie Shimerdla

Have you ever used a brush and thought how pretty it would look, if only you could make it show up in more than one color? Being able to change the color of Photoshop brushes upon application is a beautiful thing, but sometimes the colors on image brushes and the like can look rather... flat in color. This tutorial will show you how to add multiple colors to the same brush.

1. First off, start by creating a new layer on top of the Background layer. On the layers palette, click the "Create a New Layer" button on the bottom right (just next to the trash can). Now, on that layer... using black, make a single brush stroke on the canvas using the brush of your choice. I'm using a flower brush, and it looks like this:

2. Now, in the layers palette, right click on that layer, and choose "Layer Properties," then rename the layer to "Black" so that you know that the color on that layer is...well, black! You should now have a background layer, and this new layer with the black brushstroke on it named "Black." Now, to add some color! So that you don't have to paint in everything and hope to "stay in the lines" of where the boundaries of the brush is, we're going to just duplicate the layer and then you can work with that. Here goes! Right click on the "Black" layer in the layers palette and choose "Duplicate Layer."

3. Name that layer whatever color you would like to use first. The primary color of my phlox flower is a blue-violet, so I named mine "Blues." You can rename it either as you duplicate it (it will ask you what to name it) or afterward, if you forget, you can right click on the layer in the layer palette and choose "Layer Properties" just like we did in the first step. Now, on the layers palette, make sure you have the "Blues" layer selected and click on the "f" at the bottom left corner of the layers palette.

4. Choose "Color Overlay" from the dropdown menu, and then pick out a color.



5. You should have an image exactly the same as the original black, but now in whatever color you chose. We're going to change the way that this layer blends into t

he entire image, but first we need to get rid of the "color overlay" on this layer (but keep the color, of course!). In the layers palette,click on the layer just beneath the colored layer - in my case, the layer just below my "Blues" layer. Click on the "Create a New Layer" button at the bottom of the layers palette (highlighted in red on the image to the right). It should look like this:



6. Click on the "Blues" layer to

select it. In the top menu, choose "Layer" and then "Merge Down" (or hotkey CTRL-E on a PC, CMD-E on a Mac).

7. You'll probably have to rename your "Blues" layer. Whenever you merge a layer down, it takes on the name of the layer below it. So, do that now using the same way we did it earlier.

Now we want to change the way that the blues layer blends in with the whole image. Select the "Blues" layer by clicking on it in the layer palette. Now click on the "f" at the lower left of the layer palette again. Choose the first option, "Blending Options":




8. In the menu that pops up, at the top, you'll want to change that from

"Normal" to "Color."



9. What this is doing is changing it so that this layer now merely changes the color of anything on the layers below it. It does NOT change the luminosity of it, so if you had this over white, it wouldn't do anything. It would make it a blue white, but a blue white is still white - white doesn't have any color to it at all. However, when you have gray tones in the layer below, as we do, it adds color to those gray tones to make them blue-grays. I played around with my blues layer and added different tones of blue simply by painting it in. If you didn't want to actually paint them in, you could add a gradient - with this flower, I added a radial gradient so that the tips were darker and the inner portions had more purples in them:

10. I followed steps 2-8 again, beginning with the duplication of th e black layer, and created a layer with yellows and oranges in it. You can do this as many times as you want, with as many layers as you want.. or just with the one beginning layer that y ou created, if you'd rather put all the colors on one layer. I tend to use separate layers so that if I want to, I can change the hue/saturation of each individual layer.

11. You can do a lot of "playing around" with it afterward by changing the hue/saturation like that, or by changing the lightness/darkness or opacities of each layer (including the black one!). Here's another image of a pansy where I did just that. The first one is the original, where I have the black layer's opacity set at only about 60%. The second one is different hues AND the black layer's opacity is set much higher, at 100%. The third one is different hues again, with the blues on the edges much more saturated and the black layer at a lower opacity, around 30%.

13. If you're not familiar with where to change the hue and saturation, brightness, etc, it's under the top menu. Click on "Image" then "Adjustments" then "Hue/Saturation.." A window will pop up that has three bars where you can play around with the colors (hue), how strong or weak that color is (saturation), and the lightness/darkness of that color. As you change them, you'll see the changes to the image itself, so you can see exactly how it will turn out.


14. That's it! Now you can do all sorts of things with colors and brushes!

An alternative method that I use sometimes is to make a single black brush stroke on its own layer, then make another layer just beneath it where I "paint" in the colors that I want that brush to have. Just like I'd paint one of my paintings. This method isn't for everyone, though, and can be difficult to do with just a mouse. So I spent much more time outlining the method above. However, if you're an artist or would like to do these colors much more intricately, try painting the colors in on a layer below yourself.

Enjoy!

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How to Create Photoshop Brushes

How to Create Photoshop Brushes

1. Creating your own custom Photoshop brushes is easier than you might think. First, let's create a simple signature brush. Open a new file within Photoshop (File > New..), and make it approx 500 X 500 pixels. The resolution doesn't matter. Make it 72 pixels/inch, or whatever it starts on. Make sure that the mode is RGB. For "Background Contents," choose white. At 500 x 500, this will be creating a fairly large-sized signature brush, but remember - you can always make it smaller or larger when you use it as a brush. When you make a brush, ALWAYS make sure it has a white background. Everything that is white will remain an "empty" area when it comes to the brush - a gap or a hole, if you will. You'll see what I mean as we go along. Now, using black or a dark color, make your signature.



2. Mine is fairly sloppy and simple, but you get the idea. You can make it as ornate as you wish. In fact, that's one of the wonderful things about using a signature brush - you don't have to reproduce it each time! Now, under the top menu, under "Edit" click on "Define Brush Preset."


3. Photoshop will show you a preview of how your brush will look, as well as give you an opportunity to name it. Name it "signature brush" or whatever you like. Notice also that the size of the brush (in pixels) is listed below the preview. That will be the default size that this particular brush opens to. Remember, you can change it to whatever size you like later - up to 2000 pixels. The larger it is here, the less fuzzy it will be at those large sizes.


4. That's it! Really! Open a new file and play around with your new brush. It will be listed in with all the others that you had currently active. Be careful, however, as it is not yet saved as a part of a brush file. So, if you go load a different set of brushes, it will be lost. We'll show you how to save it in just a moment. Let's make a second, more complex brush, first - then we can save them as a brush set!


5. Open a picture of whatever it is you want to make a brush out of. I've chosen to use one of my speedpaintings, a penguin. Crop the piece around the part of it that you would like to make into a brush file. You don't want any extra room on the edges that you need to worry about. I generally do this in one of two ways. I make a white layer beneath the photo layer, then just use the lasso tool or eraser to "erase" around it. OR, if it's more intricate... I make a NEW layer on top of the photo layer. I then paint white around the area that I want to make a brush out of. By doing it this second way, if you make a mistake, you can fix it much more easily! (Multiple layers are fine when it comes to making brushes - it will act as though it was all one flat image when it creates it.)


6. You're going to want to have all white surrounding that penguin so that when you make the brush, it doesn't end up with the background being a part of it, too. This is the most time consuming part of the brush process, especially if you're making intricate brushes!


7. Again, go in to Edit>Define Brush Preset and create your brush. See how all those blues are created to grayscale? All brushes are created that way - Photoshop will do it for you. That is so that when you choose a brush to paint with, you can use whatever color you want! Name your brush and click "OK". Again, feel free to play around with it in a new file. This is what my new brush looks like:


8. What good is all of that if you can't save them, though, right? So, here's the last part of the tutorial. Saving your new brushes as a set. Go back into your brushes and delete any of the ones that had been previously in there - ones that you do NOT want as a part of your new set. Don't worry, this doesn't delete them as a file, it just removes them from your list of "active" brushes. To do that, right click on the brush you want to delete, and click on "delete" - as simple as that!

9. When you are left with ONLY the brushes that you want as a part of this new set, click on the same arrow that you would click on to load up new brushes (highlighted in red on the picture to the right), then choose "Save as..". Now, you're going to want to put this in the right directory, so that it will automatically load up in your list of brushes whenever you start Photoshop. Within your Photoshop directory, place it in the Presets>Brushes folder. For example, if you installed Photoshop CS onto your C drive in the path that the installation program defaults to, you would find this folder in: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop CS\Presets\Brushes\. Choose an appropriate name for it, and you're done! Note: You will have to close and re-open Photoshop before that brushes set will be visible among those that you can choose from the menu on the right. Alternatively, you can choose "Replace Brushes.." and load them that way.

10. Congratulations! You've made your own brush set.

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