Technology was not as advanced as it is today, and things were shifting at a slower pace. Retro and vintage years usually refer to the decades before our present day, up to the last century. Images of the early 1900s to the 1980s come into mind as we think about the designs of this era. Even though retro and vintage designs, as the names suggest, are strictly outdated, many of us still turn to them for encouragement. These designs are still very much appreciated today due to its nostalgic value. Here we have some very good collection retro and vintage Photoshop tutorial collection.

Old Fantasy Map
via Vile Works

Abstract Retro-Pop Wallpaper
via Tutorial 9

Realistic Burnt Parchment

3D Retro Strip
via Photoshop Tutor

Creating the New Retro
via Computer Arts

Awesome Retro Collage
via 10 Steps

Retro Pop Art

Retro Photo with Background
via Denis Designs

Retro Grunge Poster
via Photoshop Tutorials

Wicked-Worn Vintage Pop Art Design
via Psdtuts+

Stunning Old-World Look

Space-Helmeted Future Retro Illustration

Old-Collage Effect Poster

Stylish Retro Text Effect

Mix Cool Retro Curves Into Photographs

Retro Boxing Poster

60’s Psychedelic Style Concert Poster

Rockin’ 80’s Party Poster

Vintage Car Poster
via PSD Vault

Old-Style Safari Map
via PSD Fan

Retro Comic Book Effect
via Photoshop Roadmap

Gigposter Design
via GoMediaZine

Old School Type – Line Gradients

Retro Cosmic Design
via Fudge Graphics

Planet Terror Style Poster
via Outlaw Design Blog

Vintage Magazine Ad

Vintage Effect for Photos
via Alfoart

Photo Transfer Edge Effect
via PShero

Old World Wax Seal

Old Paper

Old Envelope

WWII Airplane

Retro Logo with Soft Grunge Background
via PV.M Garage

Retro Lighting – Ford Mustang
via Adobe Tutorialz

Dreamy Vintage
via Blueprint Media Design

1950s-Style Movie Poster
via Spoonfed Design

Sweet Old School Album Cover
via Fortyseven Media

Turn A New Photo Into An Old Photo
via Photoshop Essentials

Curvy Cross Processing
via Layers Magazine

Vintage Polaroid Effect
via MyInkBlog

Hi!.. Typography in different styles is getting very popular day by day. In typography people are using a lots of different styles and techniques to make it more stylish, eye-catching. People do a lots of experiments to create an awesome piece of work , I did the same thing and I found really cool new ones and today I am goanna tell u how we can create awesome smoke typography effect in simple steps using Photoshop CS 4 with the help of brushes and adjustment layers.. It’s a very easy tutorial and you will be able to do the whole process in 5-10 minutes.

Step 1

Open Photoshop and create a new document, I used 1920×1200 pixels. Then apply a gradient, you could fill it with a gradient or apply a Layer Style. I used the layer style, Gradient Overlay. Use Radial for the Style and #07090a – #202b35 for the colors.

Step 2

Add some text in white then go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur. Use 90º for the Angle, and 40 pixels for the Distance.

Step 3

Now go to Filter>Distort>Wave. use 3 for the Number of Generators, 10 and 346 for the Wavelength, and 5 and 35 for the Amplitude.

Step 4

Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 10 pixels for the Radius. Then group the layer and rename the folder’s Blend Mode to Color Dodge. You will get a nice light effect.

Step 5

Create a new layer on top of the others and go to Filter>Render>Clouds, make sure you had black and white for the background and foreground colors, then change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge and go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal All. With a very soft brush, 0% hardness and black color, hide some areas of the clouds layer. Use the image below for reference.

Step 6

Create a new Folder on the Layers’ Palette. Change the folder’s Blend Mode to Color Dodge and add a new layer in it. Then use the Smoke Brushes from Qbrushes . Select white for the color and paint over some letters. If you think the brush is not very bright, just click twice. Paint a few more smokes like the image below.

Step 7

Create a new layer beneath the other layers but in front of the Background layer. Fill this layer with black and go to Filter>Texture>Texturizer. Use 100% for the Scaling and 4 for the Relief. For the Texture use Canvas and Light use Top. That will add a nice texture to the image but you will need to change the opacity to 10%.

Step 8

This is a nice new feature in the new Photoshop CS4, actually there’s nothing new just the Adjustments palette, but it’s very useful because you can edit all the image adjustments like Levels, Hue & Saturation, Curves in that palette. However it just adds a Adjustment Layer, that could be done in the previous versions too.

Anyway, on top of the other layers just add the Invert adjustment. You can go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Invert. It will be the same. You will get a very nice effect, like burning paper.

Conclusion

One of the best things in Photoshop is the Brushes Engine and all the things we can create with brushes. With so many excellent sites with Brushes like Brusheezy, Tutorial9, QBrushes, Designscollage, DeviantArt, and PSDTUTS we can find practically all sorts of effects and elements ready to be used in our designs. That means we can focus on ideas rather than figure out ways to recreate things. Also we have 2 very different effects with just one adjustment layer, the Invert. Once again, it’s all about playing. I hope you enjoyed this quick tutorial, and let me know if you have any questions.

In this Photoshop tutorial we’re going through some major steps to create a glass ball. The main goal of this tutorial is that you get an idea how to approach this and use these technique in other ways. It’s not that important to remember all settings, but it’s more important that you understand what’s exactly happening in this tutorial…

1. Prepare the document

Save the following image on your computer (right click on the image and select in Windows Save Picture As…).

For this tutorial I’ve chosen to go for a rather small file (640×480 pixels), just to make it easier for you to see what you’re doing.

Open the file in Photoshop. Add a new layer by clicking on the Create a new layer icon.

Grab the Elliptical Marquee toolfrom your toolbar and make a selection (hold down the shift key before you make the selection to make the selection a perfect circle) somewhere in the area and with the size that I’m showing here:

2. Fill the selection with the base color of the glass ball

Click on the foreground color in the tool bar marked with red in this screenshot:

In the Color Picker window that opens you enter the value D6D3C0 in the area marked with A:

Grab the Paint Bucket Tool and fill the selection with this color.
Press Ctrl +D (Command + D on the Mac) to get rid of the selection. You can also use the menu to do this: Select/Deselect.

3. Add a layer style

Go to the layers palette and click on the Add a Layer Style icon and select Inner Shadow and use the settings shown here (watch out: the color white is selected):

The result should look like this:

4. Add a gradient

Add a new layer by clicking on the Create a new layer icon .

Clip this layer with the layer underneath by pressing Ctrl + G (Command + G on the Mac) or Ctrl + Alt + G (Command + Option + G on the Mac) if you use Photoshop CS2.

A clipping layer only affects the layer underneath. You’ll see soon what I mean.

Change the background color in the tool bar and use the following color: 65645F. We’re now going to draw a gradient using the current fore- and background colors. Select the Gradient Tool in the toolbar (if it’s not visible, then look under the Paint Bucket tool ).

Take a short look at the next screenshot. Make sure that a linear gradient (B) is selected in the options bar at the top and that the option Reverse (C) is selected. (mode should be normal, opacity 100%, dither and transparency should be both selected, but in most cases they’re probably already having the right values)

If you don’t see a gradient that uses your colors at A which should look like this , then double click on the gradient in the options bar (A) and select the gradient from the list (most likely the first one) and click OK.

Start in the middle where you see the red dot and end where you see the blue dot (Just before the area where the main color is getting lighter).

The result should look like this:

Press the letter D on your keyboard, which makes the foreground color black, the background color white:

Add a Layer Mask to this layer by clicking on the Add Layer Mask icon . Don’t you worry if it switches the fore- and background color when you do this, this is normal behavior. Note: If the fore- and background colors look like this after you added the mask, then everything is ok. If they are switched, then just click on the double arrow points icon to correct this.

The Gradient Tool is still active, but this time we need a Radial Gradient. Select the Radial Gradient in the options bar (the one beside the linear gradient (marked B in our previous screenshot of the options bar))

With the layer mask still active (It will have a double border), create a radial gradient by starting in the middle and stopping at the outher edge of our circular shape.

By this time we should you have something like this:

5. Add more layer styles

We’re now going to duplicate our Layer 1.
Click on its icon in the layers palette, hold down the mouse button and drag (A) the layer to the Create a new layer icon and release the mouse button.

The next step is to move this duplicate (that has now become the layer with name Layer 1) to the top of our layers palette; click on Layer 1 and drag (B) it all the way up until you notice a dark black line appearing above the top layer. At that moment release the mouse button.

Warning for users of Photoshop CS2 or later : it turns out that Photoshop CS2 changes Layer 2 back to a normal layer, one that is not clipped, when we duplicate Layer 1. To correct that make sure Layer 2 is active and press Ctrl + Alt + G (Command + Option + G on the Mac). Again, this should only be done in Photoshop CS2.

Make sure that Layer on (our new top layer) is active (you will notice the in front of it).

Set the Fill of this layer to 0% (A) and then double click on the Layer Style icon (B) to modify the Layer Style of this layer:

Use the following effects settings for the layer style. Make sure that all settings are exactly the same, including color or blending mode settings.

Inner Shadow
(pay special attention to the option Use Global Light, because it’s not selected! Also notice that we have a black rectangle beside the Blend Mode; double click it if yours is not black, to change its color!)

Inner Glow

After this our image should look something like this:

6. Add more volume

Add a new layer by clicking on the Create a new layer icon .

Select the Brush Tool in the tool bar.
Click on the area of the options bar that I’ve marked in red and select a 150px brush, with a hardness of 0%, which is the softest brush you can use.

Set the foreground color to white.
Click once with this brush exactly in the middle of this new layer (Layer 3). Now go to the menu and select Filter/Effects/Gaussian Blur… and select a radius of 25 and click OK.

Note: because we’ve blurred the white dot, white pixels might appear outside the area that we have defined as our glass ball, so we have to get rid of it. It’s quite simple and we’re going to use a little ‘trick’ for that.

With the top layer (Layer 3) still active we Ctrl + click (Command + click on the Mac) on the thumbnail of the layer underneath this layer (Layer 1) which will load it’s shape (the ball) as a selection and all we have to do now is to click on the Add Layer Mask icon and we’ve got rid of all white pixels outside our glass ball.

Now change the opacity of this layer to 30%. This screenshot also shows how your layer palette should look like at this moment:

7. Create a highlight

Add a new layer in Photoshop by clicking on the Create a new layer icon and that’s going to be Layer 4.

Select the Brush Tool and use a hard brush (hardness is 100%) with a size of 20. Change the foreground color to white (or a very slight yellow (close to indoor light) using a value of FFFFE8).

Place the highlight in the location shown here:

Go to the menu and select Effects/Blur/Gaussian Blur… and select a small radius of .5 and click OK.
Go to the layers palette and click on the Add a Layer Style icon to add a layer style and select the Outer Glow effect and use the settings shown here:

8. Add a shadow

First make the Layer 1 copy (the one above the background layer) the active layer by clicking on it; a will appear in front of it.

Now set the Fill of this layer to 25%

You’ll notice that by doing that, that we’re are getting closer to the final result:

If the bottom is too bright (marked with the arrow), then just select the Layer Style of Layer 1 copy and lower the opacity of the Inner Shadow effect (or increase it if that’s what you prefer).

We now click on the background layer with the newspaper image on it, to make it active.
Add a new layer by clicking on the Create a new layer icon .

With this layer (Layer 5) active we click on Ctrl + click (Command + click) on the thumbnail of the layer above (the one with glass ball, Layer 1 copy). The result is a selection in layer 5 that is based on this glass ball.

Press the letter D on your keyboard, which makes the foreground color black, the background color white

We’re now going to draw a gradient using the current foreground color (black) in combination with transparency. Select the Gradient Tool in the toolbar (if in it’s not visible, then look under the Paint Bucket tool ).

Make sure that a Radial Gradient (B) is selected in the options bar at the top and that the option Reverse (C) is selected.

If you don’t see a gradient in your options bar ( A), that looks like one going from transparency to black, then double click on the gradient in the options bar (A) and select the gradient from the list (the one right beside D) and click OK.

Draw the gradient by starting in the middle of your selection and end at the edge of this same selection.

We’re now going to transform this selection in an elliptical shape by using the transform tool. Go in the menu to Edit/Free transform or press Ctrl + T (Command + T on the Mac). A rectangular box with 8 handles will appear.
Now pull the upper center handle downward (see A) until you have a shape that looks like the one in B.
Now press enter on your keyboard to complete the transformation and press Ctrl +D (Command + D on the Mac) to get rid of the selection. You can also use the menu to remove the selection: Select/Deselect.

We now have to move this shadow to the right (B). Be aware that the arrow only marks the direction, not the distance.
Select the Move Tool in your tool bar.
To move the selection, click on the shape and while holding the mouse button move the shape in place. Have a look at screenshot C to see where you should place this shadow. If your shadow seems to jump while you try to move it, then go to the menu and select view and make sure that Snap is turned off:

Now change the opacity of this layer to 50%. In the menu we select Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur… and select a radius of 2 and click OK. On the right you can see how the layers palette should look like after you’ve done all steps (in this screenshot I marked the color of the shadow layer with yellow).

9. Deform inside of glass ball and shadow

n this last step we’re going to deform the image inside the glass ball. Make sure that our shadow layer (Layer 5) is still active and Ctrl + click (Command + click) on the thumbnail of the layer above (the one with glass ball, Layer 1 copy). The result is a selection in layer 5 that is based on this glass ball (like we did in step 8). Now got to the menu and select Filter/Distort/Spherize…
Select for Amount the value 100% and make sure that Normal is selected for Mode. Click OK.
The shadow is now deformed.

Make the background layer active and press Ctrl + F (Command + F on the Mac).
Note: Ctrl + F will always apply the filter that was used previously, in our case Spherize.

That was our final step and this is the result:

Tutorial Update – Improving the highlight

n this update we’re going to improve the highlight. Click on Layer 4 that contains our highlight to make it active.
We are now going to transform the highlight by pressing Ctrl + T (command + T on the Mac) and entering a value of 65% for Horizontal Scale (A) and a value of 45 for Rotation (B) and press enter twice:

This makes the highlight look more like an actual part of the ball:

t’s important to know that you have to select a background with colors that are not the total opposite of the colors we selected in the beginning of our tutorial when you want to use this technique.

You can make the ball even more realistic by adding more highlights or reflections. For the purpose of this tutorial I’ve kept it simple by adding just one single highlight.

Also be aware that once you deform the shadow or inside of the ball that you’re not able to move the ball, since both deformations are of course in a way “connected” to the background. So make sure that the glass ball is in the right place, before you start with the deformations. Make sure that your background is not to plain. A real glass ball doesn’t look cool either on white piece of paper in front of a white wall. Always try to use the environment to strengthen the effects you’re using to make the result look more realistic.

Vector art is very famous now days and needs no introduction. It’s always helpful to have a collection of pre-made vector objects to express creativity in your designs, as vectors are very easy to boost up to any dimension without defecting the quality of your image graphics because there is no fix resolution for vector images. It’s not an easy job to find a best and the perfect piece of vector art for your design. However, there are quite a few resources around the web for our fans, hope it help you out.

01. vecteezy

02. vector4free

03. dezignus

04. qvectors

05. dryicons

06. Vector Wallpapers

07. coolvectors

08. vectorvalley

09. vectorportal

10. vectorart

11. 123freevectors

12. freevectors

13. dapino-colada

14. vectorstock

15. deviantart

16. smashingmagazine

17. vectortuts

18. gomediazine

19. vectorvault

20. garcya

21. bittbox

22. creativemyk

23. designious

24. vectorjunky

25. dragonartz

26. illustrationclass

27. creativosonline

28. iheartvector

29. keepdesigning

30. vectorss

31. vectorlady

32. createsk8

33. vectorjungle

34. freevectors

35. uberpiglet

36. vectorsworkshop

37. clipart-design

38. hydro74

39. freevectors

40. webdesign-easy

41. roundpixel

42. vectormix

43. mulpo

44. allfreelogo

45. brandsoftheworld

46. logotypes.designer

47. logotypes

48. logozu

49. free-logotypes

50. logotypes

51, 2expertsdesign

52, fordesigner

53, graphicspile

54, visionwidget

55, theadminzone

56, lordofdesign

57, freevectordownload

Every day we work hard to find new resources and inspiration for designers. Today, we have another great post. In this post we made a list of “How to Creat Amazing Posters” photoshop tutorials Must-See Resources and Inspirational Collections for Designers. We obviously cannot cover all the best material from the web, but we have tried our best to cover as much as possible. Hope u like it…

Creating a Grunge Rock Poster

Skateboarding Poster

Rockin 80′s Party Poster

Abstract Poster

Create a Mock Retro Poster

Ice Cold Poster

Typographic Poster

High Impact Gig Poster

Portable Gaming Device Poster

Typographic Concept Poster

Century Vaudeville Poster

Chick Muscle Car

Inspiring Artistic Poster

Retro Grunge Poster

Trendy Typographic Poster

Awesome Snowboard Poster

War Movie Poster

Design Striking Stencil Art For posters

Creating An Old Collage Effect Poster

GiG Poster Design

Big Typography Snowboarding Poster

Sin City Style Poster

Furious Pink Panther Poster

Crazy Movie Poster

Poster From The Words

Radio Station Advertisement

Create SCT-FI poster

Avatar Movie Poster

Diamond Advertisement Poster

Awesome Music Poster

Event Poster

Create An Impactful Child Welfare Poster

Create A Pulsing Poster

Awesome Colorful Posters Tutorial

Power Ball Effect For Movie Poster

60′s Psychedelic Style Concert Poster

Halloween Vector Poster

Constructivist Inspired Poster

Dirty Grunge Poster

Explosive Cover

Vintage Car Poster

Vector Political Poster

Retro Summer Poster

Cool Movie Poster

Sony Ericsson G900 Photoshop Tutorial

Golden Phone Poster

Shoe Advertisement Poster

Create A Pop Art Style Poster

Love Poster

Composing An Event Poster

Green Planet Poster

X-MEN Movie Poster

Step Up 2 Poster

Lord Of The Rings Poster

Design A Professional Laptop Advert Poster

Professional Advertisement Poster

Create Amazing Ad Photoshop

Giving a Mafia Look to a Business Photo

Orange – Design Your Life

Make a Cut and Paste Rock Club Flyer

‘Neo-Constructivist’ Poster with Photoshop

Trendy Geometric Lines Design Tutorial

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen Movie

Create a Grungy Poster In Photoshop

Create a movie poster for apocalyptic

John Rambo Movie-Poster

Create a Dark, Creepy Movie Poster

Quick Grungy Poster

Creating an Abstract Watercolor Wallpaper

Soul Rebel Poster Tutorial

This awesome piece of work is by Doucin Pierre computerArts. In this tutorial he will explain how to Brings velocity and meltdown to your subjects with a little Photoshop magic. In the following steps, he’ll let you in on one of the most effective and easily mastered techniques that I use to make striking, dynamic distortions of subjects…

Step: 1

My objective when approaching this visual was to create a graphic and dynamic montage,
with a photo turning into/being made out of paint. The first step is to find the right photo,
and here I used a little bit of a cliché – a basketball player. The whole visual effect rests
on the photo used, so make sure you choose wisely.

Step:2

Open the photo (photo-original.jpg) from the disc. There are numerous ways
to select and isolate the person. I chose the Pen tool (making sure Paths is selected in
the Tool Options bar) as it enables you to isolate the curves of the body. Draw around
the person, then create a selection from the path and choose Select>Modify>Feather
and enter a value of 1. Remove the background using Delete.

Step:3

Once the body of the basketball player has been isolated, create a new file
in A4 format – 300dpi and RGB. I’ve called it BasketKing (if this piece is to be printed,
use CMYK colour mode). Once the file has been created, apply a neutral grey
background colour and import the selected image of the basketball player. Resize the
player and place him where you want.

Step:4

It’s really important to have contrast and colours that are a little more raw in
the fi nal piece than they were in the original photo, and we can bump these up using
Curves. After this, desaturate the colours slightly using Hue/Saturation. I’ve chosen a
Saturation value of -32. Now we can move onto the background.

Step:5

A neutral background will bring out the basketball player. Create a new Layer Group called
‘Background’ to organise the layers. Create two new layers within this, and use
the Gradient tool to apply a gradient with an Opacity of 25 per cent to each.
In one, use a black-to-transparent gradient going from the top-right to the
bottom-left corners, and in the other use a white-to-transparent gradient going from the bottom-left
to top-right corners.

Step:6

Now create a ‘fl oor’. To do this, create a selection at the bottom of a new
layer and fi ll it with a very dark grey. Then apply a Gaussian blur of around 30%. With
the Brush tool on a low Opacity, blend the fl oor into the background (as demonstrated
in the screenshots above).

Step:7

To fi nish the work on the background, we’ll create the
shadow of the basketball player. Using the Brush tool at 20%
Opacity and 15% Flow, select Black and then, on a new layer,
paint the shadow. Blur off the shadow on the edges with the
Eraser tool at 15% Opacity.

Step:8

This kind of project always ends up with a lot of layers – and it’s important
to anticipate this by creating and naming them so they’re easy to find and edit. To
prepare yourself for the next stages, create Layer Groups to manage all the files. I’ve
created the following Layer Groups: Arms, Legs, Body, Ball, Form, Foot and
Background. Apply a colour label to each of them if you wish.

Step:9

To create this liquid ‘decomposition’ effect, I use
brushes that create a paint-stain effect – these can be found
on sites such as Brusheezy.com, or you can create them
yourself. You’ll find my brushes on the disc. You can load these
by going to the Brushes palette, clicking the arrow and
choosing Load Brushes.

Step:10

Once you’ve imported the brushes and created the
Layer Groups, select the Brush tool and apply separate paint
strokes so that the splatters are on separate layers – and make
sure you name each layer to find them easily. For this exercise, I
used around 20 different paint stains on about 20 layers, but
you can use more or less depending on your image and the
effect you’re after.

Step:11

Now we’re ready to distort the body. We’ll start with the left arm because it’s
central to the movement of the piece. First, turn off the visibility of all the paint stains
layers except for the first one you want to use. Place it over the arm, where you feel it
works best, and select the layer (Ctrl/Cmd+click on the paint splat layer you’re working
on in the Layers palette).

Step:12

Next, turn off the Splat layer’s visibility, select the Basketball Player layer,
and Cut and Paste. Do this several times with different splats to build up the arm.
Decrease the Opacity of the basketball player to see the areas that have already been
done. Place all the new layers created through Cutting and Pasting into the Arm Layer
Group that you created earlier.

Step:13

After building up the arm paint effect, you want to
make parts of the underlying arm disappear. Do this by
selecting part of the arm, blurring it slightly and then, with a
Standard brush (without the wet edge – 100% Opacity and
100% Flow) delete the arm of the basketball player. Now the
effect is pretty much complete on the arm.

Step:14

Now that you understand the technique, do the same
to distort the ball, head, legs and feet, always placing the layers
in the designated Layer Groups so that you can find them
quickly if you decide to make changes. These steps can take
some time, especially at the beginning, but it’s the most
important part of this visual, so take all the time you need.

Step:15

Once you’ve finished ‘decomposing’ all the parts you want, all that remains
is to create the wispy traces of paint that detach from the body. These were made by
painting with custom brushes, sampling colours from the basketball player and trying
to create a sense of dynamism and movement.

In this awesome tutorial the artist describes you how to creat the pocket PC just using photoshop.This detailed tutorial will also teach you use full photosop effects and tricks. hope u like it…..

View Tutorial | Click Here

In this tutorial we will teach you how to create creative and stylish fire lines in 10 easy steps using Photo Shop cs3. Using these techniques you can create awesome illustrations and different techno effects. Hope u like it….

For this tutorial your going to need a good stock photo lined up. Something with action…and preferably dark (this effect works much better in a dark setting)

01

Open the stock photo, then go to the paths tab and click create new path (A) . Press “P” on the keyboard to select the pen tool, Get a basic idea of where the fire is going. Keep in mind dimension and action. Swirls do wonders!

02

A. Click to start your path B. Click your next point, hold and drag to create a bezier spline path, which is necessary to create flowing lines C. Continue doing this, following the idea of where you want the fire to go. Dont worry about getting it right the first time as you can change the spline at any time…another little tip – if you press press and hold ctrl while using the pen tool you can temporarily access the direct selection tool which will allow you to edit the spline (a big time saver)

03

And eventually…you get something like what i have below….now remember that your only going to use the parts of ur path that aren’t behind the object your pathing along….in this case the models arms, and legs. So dont worry about making the hidden parts pretty.

04

A. Now you want to select a soft round brush (i used a 5 pixel brush here) and pick an orange color.

B. Make a new layer and name it FIRE (I have mine named The Amazing Shoelace)

C. Go back to the paths tab and select stroke path with brush.

05

You should immediately see the stroked path. On mine you’ll see parts that weren’t originally pathed that are now there. Those give the fire the illusion that it is moving, and were accomplished by simply grabbing the clone stamp tool – using a spatter brush and cloning/stamping.

06

Erase the parts behind the legs/arms or whatever it is your paths follows.

07

Right click on the FIRE layer and select blending options. Use these options/values for the exact product i got…but your free to play with them, (thats how i discovered this technique) you might end up with something better!

08

Duplicate the FIRE layer, and set the layer mode to OVERLAY Click the eye next to inner shadow and inner glow on the duplicate layer to deactivate them.

09

Now double click on outer glow on the duplicate and change the values to this.

Conclusion

Spend a little time, and you can make something like what i have below…

For added coolness, duplicate the FIRE layer again, and filter>distort>wave….play with the opacity levels, and play with the blending modes, particularly OVERLAY. Enjoy….

This great tutorial is about to emphasizes the importance of finishing and touching to bring out your illustration. Simple techniques are used like including 2D shapes can brighten your illustration, and certain colors can bring out the main point of your design.

(Tony Harmer) draws on simple techniques for adding spot colours, varnishes and special finishes to your layouts. So lets start it.

Step 1

We aren’t able show you the varnish applied to the triangle elements running across the middle of the page, as this is not visible in print, so these elements appear here as a grey colour; we’ll come back to them at the end. For now, we’ll start off in Photoshop with the Final.jpg image, which you’ll find on the disc.

Step 2

The triangular elements are going to be varnished, and we’re going to apply that in InDesign later. Firstly we need to create a path around the object, adjusting where necessary with the Direct Selection tool. If you want to develop your confidence with the Pen tool, there’s a podcast available on my blog at http://www.tonyharmer.co.uk/wordpress/?p=31

Step 3

Now to save the path. Go to your Paths panel and click the Panel menu at the top right. Choose the Save Path option and give it a name if you like (although the default ‘Path 1’ will do here.)

Step 4

Go back to the Paths panel menu. This time, select Clipping Path. Path 1 should already be selected (unless you’ve drawn other paths too.) You can leave the Flatness fi eld empty. Save the fi le and import it into your InDesign layout.

Step 5

Copy the image and ‘Paste in Place’ so it sits directly on top of the first image, then Right/Ctrl+click to select ‘Convert Clipping Path to Frame’. Access the Direct Selection tool (double-click from the Selection Tool to get it immediately) and select the image, then delete it. You’ll be left with a frame that’s exactly the same as your clipping path.

Step 6

Now to make a placeholder colour for the varnish. In the Swatches panel menu, choose New Colour Swatch.
You can mix any colour you like here, as long as you change the Colour Type to ‘Spot’. Give it a name – I’ve chosen ‘Placeholder’. Try to avoid using Pantone colours as placeholder colours, as they can cause confusion at the printers.

Step 7

Apply your placeholder colour to the fi ll of your frame. You can also ‘trap’ the varnish by adding a stroke using the same colour. You can then either use the Attributes panel and set the Fill and Stroke to ‘Overprint’ or, as I have done here, use the Effects panel and set the Blend mode for both to ‘Multiply’, which has the same effect with a spot colour.

Step 8

The triangle was created in Illustrator and must be prepared using the correct method when using spot colours. In Illustrator, access the Pantone Color Book via the Swatch Libraries icon on the Swatches panel.

Step 9

Now type your colour value in the Find Field. Open the Attributes panel and make sure it isn’t set to Overprint, as we need this colour to ‘knock out’. We can now import this element into InDesign using the process in Steps 5 and 6, or choose to refi ne it in Photoshop. For more on importing spot values, see http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/325/325905.html.

Step 10

A similar method should be used for elements made in Photoshop,as spot values here differ to InDesign’s.
I’ve taken the triangle into Photoshop and used a hit of green to brighten it up using the Color Range option.

Step 11

Once you’ve got a selection you’re happy with, choose New Spot Channel from the Channels panel menu. The selection should load into it straight away, and you’ll see a dialog box asking you to specify a colour.

Step 12

Click on the Color square and the picker will appear; click the Color Libraries button and type the colour number you used earlier (I’ll be typing 354). There isn’t a field to type into – just type, making sure you’re specifying exactly the same colour as before, otherwise you’ll add another plate. As this is to be semi-opaque, set the Solidity to a much lower value.

Step 13

Back in InDesign, import the triangle and repeat the process from Steps 5 and 6 to create a new placeholder for the raised varnish over the triangular elements, then apply it to the text graphic and set it to Overprint (go to View>Overprint Preview, and if it disappears then it’s all good.) This will have a nice raised texture and, if used well, can be really striking.

Step 14

Open Window>Output>Separations Preview and select Separations from the View drop-down menu. Check
that everything is as it should be: look at the CMYK plates and be sure that only the things you want to be ‘knocked out’ are being so, and that the overprinting spot colours have information where you would expect to see it. If not, make the necessary changes.

Step 15

Here’s the finished piece in Overprint Preview (Shift+Alt+Ctrl+Y/ Shift+Opt+Cmd+Y). It’s now ready to
be turned into a PDF for the printer.

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