tip #19 Fun Stuff for Designs

Here's a pot pourri of ideas for quick or cool designs.

Writing in progr ess check back later for more additions!

Vector Shape Tools: The Line Tool

Creating line arrows

Select the Line tool from the hidden menu under the Shape tool in the Toolbox.
Select a Weight for the line in the top Options bar. Append the dimension with "px" for pixels or "in" for inches. Also click the Make Shape Layer icon, located in the top Options bar. It's the first of three icons that let you determine how to use this vector tool.
1. Current Tool indicator
2. Preset Picker
3. Shape Layer
4. Work Path
5. Filled Pixels/Region
  
  If you are using a mouse, and have the Tool Tips option checked in Photohsop's General Preferences, you can hover your mouse over (don't click) any item and a yellow text box will temporarily appear, telling you what the item's name is.
Select the Geometry Options by pressing on the tiny black triangle next to the Custom Shape tool icon in the top Options bar. Here you can select whether you want the arrowheads to appear at the beginning, end or both ends of the line. The Width and Length are based on a percentage of the Weight you chose. The concavity number determines if you want an indentation or protrusion on the base of the arrowhead where it meets the stem. Numbers from 1 to 50% will intent; negative numbers from -1 to -50% will protrude. Zero will give you a flat base.
You can preset a color or even a layer style for your line/arrow, by selecting the foreground color in the Toolbox or clicking the Styles Picker swatch or Color swatch in the top Options bar, or change color or styles after you've drawn with it.
Constraining direction: You can constrain the direction to 90°, 180°, or 45° by dragging (mouse down) or rotating in that general direction and then hold down the Shift key.
Positioning: You can reposition while you are dragging by temporarily holding down the Spacebar while you're mouse is pressed down.
You can further edit or reshape a line or arrow after it's been drawn as a Shape Layer, by using other vector tools or the Transformation command in conjunction with it.
You can duplicate the shape on its own shape layer by:
1. Selecting shape with the Path Selection tool (all anchors turn solid), and drag while holding the Option key on a Mac; Alt key on a PC.
2. Selecting shape with the Path Selection tool and press Option Command T on a Mac, Alt Control T on a PC. Then move, rotate etc the Transform bounding box, then Commit (click checkmark) .
You can duplicate the entire Shape layer to a new Shape layer by:
1. Dragging the layer in the palette to the new layer icon at the bottom of the palette.
2. With the Shape layer highlighted, press the Layers palette flyout menu and choose "Duplicate Layer."
3. With the move tool selected press Option Command T, for Mac, Alt Control J, for PC, and move or transform the bounding box, then Commit (click checkmark) .
4. With the Shape layer highlighted, press Command J, for Mac. Control J for PC. to "jump" a copy to a new layer.
Helper buttons: You can add to, subtract from, intersect, or exclude overlapping shapes by clicking any of those four helper buttons (B—E) prior to or after adding shapes or subpaths to the existing shape. They are located in the top Options bar.

Create new Shape Layer (Version 7; not in Version 6)
Add to Shape (+)
Subtract from Shape (-)
Intersect Shape
Exclude overlapping shapes

Examples:

Vector Shape Tools: The Polygon Shape Tool

If the Shape Tool is active in the Toolbox, you can also select a default or Custom Shape from the Top Options bar.
1. Polygon Shape tool
2. Geometry Options
3. Sides (sides from 8-20 look like jaggy circles, beyond that the shape just looks like a circle)
  
  Polygon Shapes with Sides settings from 3 (minimum) to 8.
The Geometry Options for the Polygon tool allow you to preset the size and/or create a variety of star shapes. Leaving the Radius setting blank, will allow you to drag to your desired size. If you do preset the radius be sure to indicate the unit of measurement by appending either px for pixels or in for inches.

Here are examples of polygons (3 sides to 8 sides) from using the above Geometry settings
The Indent Sides By box allows you to set the percentage of indent with values from 1% to 99%.

Here are examples of polygons (3 sides to 8 sides) from using the above Geometry settings
You should also experiment with the other options, using smooth corners and/or indents, to appreciate the variety and power of the Polygon Shape tool!

Examples:

The Gradient Tools & the Noise Gradient feature

Photoshop comes with presets of default gradients but there's also a somewhat hidden funky function inside of the Gradient Editor. It's the Noise Gradient. This fun function allows you to produce random color concentric bands for use with any of the five gradient tools and it produces some pretty amazing graphics by simply dragging one of those tools, one, two or three times across the canvas with tool options set to a blending mode. Using the tools various blending modes in conjunction with this feature is pretty spiffy, indeed. First let's take a look at the Gradient tools. Their icons are a graphical representation of the type of gradient transition.

Various Gradient Tools become visible in the top Options bar, when the Gradient tool is selected from the Toolbox. Highlight the one you want to use. The Radial Gradient tool (B) is currently highlighted in the letter referenced example, below.

A. Linear Gradient. B. Radial Gradient, C. Angle Gradient, D. Reflect Gradient, E. Diamond Gradient, F. Tool Blending Mode; same modes as in Layer Blending mode, except the tool blending mode is separate from the Layer blending mode. You can vary the tool blending modes prior to each drag on the same layer, producing various effects, whereas you can only choose one blending mode for the entire layer. G. Tool Opacity, is different from Layer opacity in that you can vary it for each drag on the same layer, whereas the Layer opacity affects the whole layer.

Clicking the tiny black triangle next to the preview (picker) window in the top Options bar, will open the Gradient Swatches Palette (Picker).

Clicking once in the preview window in the top Options bar will open the Gradient Editor and the Swatches Palette (Picker). You need to be in the Editor in order to change the Gradient Type to Noise. Just remember to set it back to the default Solid position for the regular gradients, when you're through playing! You might forget you switched it to Noise and waste all sorts of time deleting preferences, reinstalling etc, thinking something is wrong with Photoshop.

A. This was one drag with the Noise Gradient, using the Radial tool and 50% Roughness.

B. This was several drags with the same color palette Noise Gradient, using the Radial tool, varying lengths and direction drags, using Difference Blending Mode for the Tool and 50% Opacity for the tool.

C.This was several Radial Noise drags, in Difference Blending Mode, 50% Opacity with the Roughness set to 100%.

D. This was same as "C" but using the Angle Gradient Tool.

Even more variety can be achieved by Randomizing the Noise Gradient for subsequent drags, and using various blending modes & opacity for the tool. The Randomize button gives you different bands of colors in different positions on the bar. The example below is a composite of four separate files that were brought into a larger canvas by dragging with the Move tool from the source image window to the target image window.Then positioned as you see below.

Below, is the graphic from above but with added solid color panels added on separate layers and put in various Layer blending modes & opacity. The black line tool was used as well as the Type tool. This mock Annual Report Cover took less than 10 minutes to create. If you're on a tight budget, you can easily convert the piece to a 2-color job by going to Image>Duplicate merged layers, then Image>Mode>Grayscale, then add a Spot Channel from the Channels palette's flyout menu. The annual on the right uses black and Pantone 3965C as the Spot Color. Click on the Spot Swatch in the Spot Color dialog box and either type in the number or find in by scrolling the vertical color bar inside of the Custom Color Picker. The information from the Gray Channel was selected, copied (Command A, then Command C) and then pasted to the preset Spot Channel (Command V). Spot Color Files should be saved as DCS 2.0 files, unless directed otherwise from you printer.

Experiment with the Noise Gradient, Randomizing, choosing different Color Models, along with the 5 Gradient Tools. The above are designs using just that tool—imagine combining this feature with other features and layers!

The Molecule Effect with the Gradient Tool

This is a fun thing, too! But sometimes the effects can look "medically gross" or like magnified views of slugs! If you've been playing with the Noise Gradient, be sure to set the option in the Editor back to "Solid," before attempting this.

Fill a Background layer with black.
Press the letter "d" to set your foreground colors to the default black/white.
Press the letter "x" to switch white as the foreground color.
Select the Radial Gradient Tool
From the Gradient Picker, select the Foreground/Background swatch (Should look like white in the upper left and black in the lower right.)
Set the tool's Blending Mode option to "Lighten," in the top Options bar.
Drag the tool a short distance in the canvas. Drag subsequently from various starting points and of different lengths. (Do this all on the black Background layer)

The example above left is how your initial molecules should be reacting. The example on the right has an added Adjustment Layer-Hue and Saturation with the Colorize box checked, ant the Saturation slider bumped up. You can dial in any Hue but the Red looks more like an internal organ, n'est pas?

The example above left is the same piece but instead using a Gradient Fill Adjustment Layer, choosing a Rainbow colored gradient, setting the angle to 45°. Then change the layer blending mode to "Soft Light" for that Adjustment layer.

The example above right uses the same rainbow gradient but has a duplicate of the initial Background set to Linear Burn Blending mode. See the Layer's palette below.

The possibilities are endless so you should experiment with different Gradient tools, Adjustment Layers and Layer Blending modes and opacities. Have Fun!

The Diamond Gradient & Pattern Fill Adjustment

The Diamond Gradient is an ideal tool to make glowing stars. For practice, create a 400 pixel x 400 pixel document in RGB Mode and set to the screen resolution of 72ppi.

Press the letter "d" to set default colors. Press the letter "x" to switch their positions making White the foreground color in the Toolbox.
Select the Gradient tool (G), from the Toolbox.
Click on the Diamond Gradient in the top Options bar.
Make sure that the Gradient Type is set back to Solid inside of the Gradient Editor.
Select the Foreground to Transparent Gradient from the Gradient Picker Palette. The swatch should look white in the upper left and checkerboard in the lower right.
Fill the Background layer with black. Since black is you background color in the Toolbox, use the shortcut for filling with the background color;[Macs: Command delete]; [PCs: Control backspace].
Starting from the center of you canvas, and holding your shift key to constrain the drag to 90°, drag upward about 1.25 inches. (To view Rulers press [Macs: Command R]; [PCs: Control R].) See below.
In order to see how you can edit and apply this star to other images, your going to use a Pattern Fill Adjustment layer, and hopefullly learn a little bit about this great feature and how to navigate the boxes. Click on the Fill/Adjustment shortcut button and select Pattern, as indicated above right.. If you are not familiar with the visual clues and functions of the following boxes, please take a moment to memorize the letter referenced areas. These windows, tabs and menus work similarly for just about every palette in Photoshop!

A. This is the Pattern Picker Preview window and the Pattern Picker arrow. The preview window show the currently selected pattern. Clicking once on either the window or the little black triangle will open the Pattern Picker Pallette (say it three times fast!).

B. This is the Pattern Picker Palette in Thumbnail view. Here you see graphical representations (swatches) of the Patterns. You can scroll this palette using the arrows or the scroll bar. To select a Pattern, click once on it.

C. This is the flyout tab. This graphical representation of a sideways triangle inside of a circle is common to all the palettes and several dialog boxes in Photoshop, so don't ignore it! This gives you access to the flyout menu for the palette.

D. This is the same Pattern Picker Palette as B, but in Small List view.

E. This is the flyout menu that allows you to perform or select certain functions that are pertinent to the palette contents. For example, the default view is Thumbnail; but what if I were to say, " Select the Water Pattern"— How would you know which one I was talking about? Well, you could hover your mouse (no clicking) over the thumbnail and if you have Tooltips on, a yellow text box will temporarily appear listing the name of the Pattern. But, from the flyout menu, you can select to view this picker palette in Small List or Large List mode. Either will give you a list along with a small icon or larger icon. The flyout menu also has the command to Load other patterns or Save the current set that is in the picker. Photoshop has presets of different groups that are not in the default set which you currently see. These other sets will either be listed at the very bottom of the flyout menu or you can click Load and navigate to the desired Presets Folder inside of the Adobe Photoshop Program folder. This flyout menu also contains a link to the Preset Manager, which allows you to create sets out of individual swatches or groups of swatches (Shift click to add to selected) and save them. You can also toggle to the 7 other Presets from within the Preset Manager window. The Preset Manager link can also be found under the top menu item "Edit."
Click once on the Pattern Fill Adjustment flyout tab. The pattern you're looking for is in the Patterns 2 set. If this Set is not listed in the flyout menu, then Click the Load Patterns command and navigate to the Adobe Photoshop Applications Folder>Presets>Patterns and load it. Append this to the current patterns palette.
Select the Water pattern and click OK. This Pattern Fill Adjustment layer will cover the star because it is on top of it in the stacking order in the Layers palette. You have to move the Star layer on top of the Water pattern layer, but the star is on the Background, which is locked.
Convert the Background into a regular movable layer by double clicking on it, press OK when the New Layer options dialog box opens. Now, grab the layer in the palette and drag it above the Water pattern layer, letting go when you see a dark line highlighted between the two layers. Or, use this shortcut for moving a layer up one level in the Layers palette. [Mac: Command and the right bracket key], [PC: Control and the right bracket key].
Double click on the Layer palette thumbnail of the Star Layer to open the Layer Styles dialog box. Change the Layer Blending Mode to Luminosity. In the "Blend If" section, move the black triangle slider for this layer to the right until it touches the white triangle, see below. This will suck out all the dark levels of the layer, making them invisible. However the star now looks like a solid white diamond. The blend is too severe.
To gradiate the blend so it's more natural do the following: Hold down the Option key [PC: Alt key] and click on the black triangle's left side. Slide just that half of the black triangle to the left. As you do this you will see the effect in the image window. Adjust according to your taste. See below.
You should experiment with different blending modes that are appropriate for lightening.These blending modes have different effects depending on the Hue and lightness value of the underllying layer. Below is an example of various blending modes for the stars over a Color Fill Adjustment Layer. The six digit number is the hexadecimal value for the blue color. You can type this value in the Color Picker dialog box, to match it exactly. I also further adjusted the upper left luminosity star by sliding the Blend If sliders for the individual Channels as well as the Gray. Experiment by using the Transformation tool, to rotate and resize, duplicates, stacking either on top of a star or reposition. When you press Command T [PC: Control T] for the Free Transformation tool, you can type in an exact degree for rotation in the top options bar. In the example below, I used 45° for the duplicate layer.
What are some other functions in Photoshop you could implement once you have these stars created? How about defining a brush? That way you could simply choose a star brush and stamp your stars. Following are some tips on how to go about defining a custom star brush.

writing in progress check back later!