tenessaa
09-28-2006, 07:50 PM
Good job on the challenge last round! Now it's time to customize these layouts a little further. As promised we will be learning techniqes for rotating, scaling, and adding drop shadows. I am building a foundation for designing in this challenge, things that were covered in previous weeks will not be covered again here just for the sake of space. However feel free to ask questions!!!! I will be more than happy to answer them, and don't forget to join me at 9:30 pm EST for the wrap up crop for this month's challenge. Here is a challenge prop to follow along with or just use any basic layout you have.
http://www.gottapixel.net/forum/local_links.php?catid=27&linkid=1061
I am going to be using the Layout I used in the last post and customizing it a little more. So I need to open the Photoshop file I saved the last time so I can edit my layout. The photoshop file has a .psd extension. I do this by clicking File > Open > and then browse to find the file where I saved it.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/141.jpg
OK lets start by rotating something. I think the picture would look more interesting if set on an angle. First make sure the layer with your photo is selected in the layers palette. Then you have two options. You can select Edit > Transform > Rotate and then click and drag your mouse to change the angle.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/1.jpg
Or you can select your Move tool, make sure all three boxes are checked on the tool options bar, and then click on one of the little squares on the outline of your photo.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/2.jpg
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/3.jpg
You can then move your mouse to just outside the corner of the photo and it will turn into a double bent arrow. From there you can click and drag your mouse to rotate. Also, you can manually type in the angle you want.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/4.jpg
I rotated my picture on my layout. This is what my screen now looks like.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/5.jpg
OK To be honest that button is a little large. So I am going to scale it down to make it look a little better. First you select the move tool just like you did when you rotated. Then you make sure the layer you want to scale is selected in the layers pallette. You can do this multiple ways but here are two; You can click Edit > Transform > Scale and click and drag your image to resize.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/6.jpg
Or you can again click on the litte squares surrounding the layer you'd like to scale, and drag to resize.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/3.jpg
To keep your image from being distorted you can either click on the little chain icon to lock the perspective and drag away or hold the shift key down while you are resizing.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/7.jpg
OK I've resized my button and this is what your screen should look like
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/8.jpg
Now to add some depth to your layout with dropshadows. I'll admit when I first started with Photoshop it took me forever to figure this out. There are a ton of different tips and suggestions out there to make your dropshadows look more realistic. To keep this easy though I'm only going to be doing the basics.
Select the layer you want to add dropshadow to in the Layers pallette. Then at the bottom of the layers pallette click on the icon that looks like an f in a circle.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/9.jpg
Select Dropshadow from the menu that appears
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/10.jpg
This box should appear
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/11.jpg
For this tutorial I have left the default settings, feel free to play with these settings to get them to your satisfaction. Notice that my layout is zoomed in, I did this to be able to see the shadow I applied. You can zoom in by pressing Control + on your keyboard and zoom out by pressing Control -. Hit Ok when you are satisfied with your shadow. Continue adding shadows to your layers until you are satisfied with your layout.
Here is my finished layout!
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/12.jpg
I am finished with this layout so I am going to save it as a jpeg file so It can be sent off to print, or shared with others who don't have Photoshop. To do this I go to File > Save As
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/13.jpg
A box will then pop up with options for saving as jpeg. I always set the value to 12 if I am planning on printing the layout. The other settings I leave as the default.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/14.jpg
Alternately you can hit Shift Control S at the same time and the save as dialog will pop up. If you just hit Control S you will either bring up the save box (if you haven't saved your image before) or it will save your layout without a dialog box (if you have saved your image before).
OK That's it for this tutorial! Feel free to ask questions if I've skipped over something. Don't forget to join me next month when we take our basic skills we now have and expand on them. Next week we will be exploring the marquee tool! You'll be amazed at what you can do with this!
Shortcuts We've learned this challenge:
Ctrl + >> Zoom In
Ctrl - >> Zoom Out
Shft Ctrl S >> Save As
Ctrl S >> Save
Shortcuts we've learned in all challenges:
Ctrl A >> Select All
Ctrl C >> Copy
Ctrl V >> Paste
Ctrl + >> Zoom In
Ctrl - >> Zoom Out
Shft Ctrl S >> Save As
Ctrl S >> Save
http://www.gottapixel.net/forum/local_links.php?catid=27&linkid=1061
I am going to be using the Layout I used in the last post and customizing it a little more. So I need to open the Photoshop file I saved the last time so I can edit my layout. The photoshop file has a .psd extension. I do this by clicking File > Open > and then browse to find the file where I saved it.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/141.jpg
OK lets start by rotating something. I think the picture would look more interesting if set on an angle. First make sure the layer with your photo is selected in the layers palette. Then you have two options. You can select Edit > Transform > Rotate and then click and drag your mouse to change the angle.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/1.jpg
Or you can select your Move tool, make sure all three boxes are checked on the tool options bar, and then click on one of the little squares on the outline of your photo.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/2.jpg
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/3.jpg
You can then move your mouse to just outside the corner of the photo and it will turn into a double bent arrow. From there you can click and drag your mouse to rotate. Also, you can manually type in the angle you want.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/4.jpg
I rotated my picture on my layout. This is what my screen now looks like.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/5.jpg
OK To be honest that button is a little large. So I am going to scale it down to make it look a little better. First you select the move tool just like you did when you rotated. Then you make sure the layer you want to scale is selected in the layers pallette. You can do this multiple ways but here are two; You can click Edit > Transform > Scale and click and drag your image to resize.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/6.jpg
Or you can again click on the litte squares surrounding the layer you'd like to scale, and drag to resize.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/3.jpg
To keep your image from being distorted you can either click on the little chain icon to lock the perspective and drag away or hold the shift key down while you are resizing.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/7.jpg
OK I've resized my button and this is what your screen should look like
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/8.jpg
Now to add some depth to your layout with dropshadows. I'll admit when I first started with Photoshop it took me forever to figure this out. There are a ton of different tips and suggestions out there to make your dropshadows look more realistic. To keep this easy though I'm only going to be doing the basics.
Select the layer you want to add dropshadow to in the Layers pallette. Then at the bottom of the layers pallette click on the icon that looks like an f in a circle.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/9.jpg
Select Dropshadow from the menu that appears
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/10.jpg
This box should appear
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/11.jpg
For this tutorial I have left the default settings, feel free to play with these settings to get them to your satisfaction. Notice that my layout is zoomed in, I did this to be able to see the shadow I applied. You can zoom in by pressing Control + on your keyboard and zoom out by pressing Control -. Hit Ok when you are satisfied with your shadow. Continue adding shadows to your layers until you are satisfied with your layout.
Here is my finished layout!
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/12.jpg
I am finished with this layout so I am going to save it as a jpeg file so It can be sent off to print, or shared with others who don't have Photoshop. To do this I go to File > Save As
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/13.jpg
A box will then pop up with options for saving as jpeg. I always set the value to 12 if I am planning on printing the layout. The other settings I leave as the default.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/tenessaa/tut2/14.jpg
Alternately you can hit Shift Control S at the same time and the save as dialog will pop up. If you just hit Control S you will either bring up the save box (if you haven't saved your image before) or it will save your layout without a dialog box (if you have saved your image before).
OK That's it for this tutorial! Feel free to ask questions if I've skipped over something. Don't forget to join me next month when we take our basic skills we now have and expand on them. Next week we will be exploring the marquee tool! You'll be amazed at what you can do with this!
Shortcuts We've learned this challenge:
Ctrl + >> Zoom In
Ctrl - >> Zoom Out
Shft Ctrl S >> Save As
Ctrl S >> Save
Shortcuts we've learned in all challenges:
Ctrl A >> Select All
Ctrl C >> Copy
Ctrl V >> Paste
Ctrl + >> Zoom In
Ctrl - >> Zoom Out
Shft Ctrl S >> Save As
Ctrl S >> Save