digital art

Floral Pattern

2011-04-20T16:30:00.034+08:00

Photoshop making from applying Extrude Effects to a selected photo. Work cut-outs and do Transform Distort and Warp for shapes. Arranged and composed within layers. Actual Size is 30" x 30" ; Psp and Jpeg file. Time is 3 hours daily within 3 days.

Obor Obor Series #7

2011-01-27T15:59:00.016+08:00

Obor-Obor Imaginative Art and the other close ups. Size 3' x 4', poster and 1GB in the actual Psp File.

Obor Obor Series #5

2011-01-27T15:28:00.031+08:00

Obor Obor Series #5 from Extrudes Pyramid 60 60 ;
60 on pixels, 60 depths ! Converts the Extrudes effects into Filter-Paint Daubs for that Bzzz effect as shown below and the making in Photoshop. The base is done with gradient map, turning down opacity and overlapping in several layers.

Wave is best applied horizontally and subject is then rotated to a desire angle for layout. Plenty of Edit-Transform of Scale, Skew, Distort, Warp and Perspective applied. Time is 6 hours with half of that ~ thinking.

Drop Shadow & Camtasia Studio

2011-01-27T13:38:00.030+08:00

Trying out Camtasia Studio … spent 2 hours finding what it can do and working 3 hours for the vid !

This is a 30 day trial software found from the internet and it’s my first work from it. It’s a screen capturing software and records everything you do from a-z from within as a video !

I like the progression. I opened up a previous work from another program which is in layers, keep Camtasia Studio ready and set the camera capture area to a specific production (blogs, dvds, youtube, web etc), organized the layer sequences to capture and records it as a video file.The saved work is recorded as camproj.file.

The camproj.file of one or more files could be added to Timeline and do Edits. Edits is merging video files, add text, timeline adjustments, apply transition effects, audio and other basic adjustments. The frame transition are quite common where I had chosen a pixelate, glow, rollover and fade effect. I tried out the audio part but finds it unsuitable with my selections. From this point, files are save as mpeg.

It’s Camtasia, where I can animate my work !

Note : Not too sure if you can view this, (when Preview, the readings are not visible) when played, at the bottom center of the screen has the 3 different readings, 240, 360 and 480. Click 480 for sharpness.

Raya 2010

2011-01-27T10:27:00.032+08:00

I used a fast and easy style production, all drawn and cut style subjects with polygonal lasso tool of Photoshop, quick fill up of white with bucket tool, keep in layers to move them around for composition. I drew the subjects bigger and reduced sizes for sharpness. Add text. Save and import into Flash for Animation. Some hours to distribute the play in timeline of Flash but it’s fun in the making and when Preview. Play the video at 480p !

Work a style

Do big and reduce

Shuffle for Composition

The finished layout in Photoshop

All the photoshop layers is exported into Flash. Check the flash video dimensions before starting working on the timeline - what appears first and last, apply light effects and when completed, export file into avi, gif or mpeg. The timeline work is save as Flash Document. I had used Flash CS3 Professional and above is a timeline example.

Guamusang 2018 !

2011-01-25T13:36:00.026+08:00

2010 Asian Games 12th-27th in Guangzhou. I chose the Games subject to work on a common style called the Motion Effect !

Malaysia could at one time host the Asian Games, the venue - Gua Musang 2018 ! Just an idea about places ; of Capital G - Gemas, Gunung Semanggol, Gemencheh or Gurun … the technique in Photoshop of Gradient Map for base, In Layers, Opacity, Overlay and effects by Motion Blur ; work Transform Distort and Warp. Simple processes with still some adjustments of sizes, shapes and layout.

Athletics, track events I like best.

Draw a petal outline with a pen tool, click into it with a the magic wand, apply feather, fill in solid white on a dark base ! Copy and arrange the other 4.

Apply Motion Blur and turn down opacity of solid white to 50%. Ctrl J to duplicate if necessary to double up the layers and whitens the overlaying factor. Merge the layers.

Add Gradient Map colours in another Layer and under Blend Mode of Layer - Pick Multiply or Overlay to 'send the Gradient colours to the back'.

Do Transform - Warp and Distort

The Master with adjusted Typeface/Logotype

Black & White or Colour Selection

Some list of Games symbol, Athletics ; shape exaggeration from distort and warp

Motion Blur reading

Say it again in here ;

Draw a shape with a pen OR from shape tools directly on dark base in Photoshop
Click into the drawn shape with Magic Wand and do Feather (Alt-Ctrl-D)-(place your Feather readings), select colour - solid white, and fill into it with bucket tool as Layer 1.
Copy Layer and do Motion Blur.(Filter-Blur-Motion Blur, your Motion Blur readings - any desire angle) as Layer 2 ; merge the layers
On a new layer - do gradient map, any two or three colours ; Click Layer and apply Layer Style, Blending Option or do all the colour mixing in there, send this layer to the back by selecting Blend Mode - pick either Multiply or Overlay
Done
Other - do Transform - distort or warp for shape exaggerations
Add text

Selamat Tahun Baru 2011 !

2011-01-25T11:14:00.018+08:00

Type in Italics, flush right manually - Press Alt, keyboard arrows right or left, do Opacity - from 20 to 100 percent, Black on White

Check ... White on Black for contrast

White on 2 colour Gradient Overlay as base

Ctrl J to copy white layer and apply another Gradient Overlay of Black to fade as shadow.

Selamat Tahun Baru 2011, January 31 !

January 31, keeping the date records

Camtasia Studio 7

2011-01-25T11:03:00.039+08:00

Playing open folders, files and layers with Camtasia. The screen capture part is recorded with Camtasia's 'camera', sets zoom in and out and title clips of text and image sets into timeline. No audio,transition or effects is place in this file. Save the project as camproj.file and export as mpeg.

Upload into youtube and the embed code is pasted into the blog Compose section. The vid plays when preview.

Why upload into youtube ... Reason …
As Google Video will be discontinuing uploads, bloggers will now have to turn to Youtube to showcase their videos on their blogs. Check January 2011 ' Create custom youtube video player ' .

Wave

2009-10-30T19:38:00.007+08:00

Idea by Wave. Wave can be found under Filters-Distort-Wave.

The making is applying artful Wave readings to shapes. Overlapping filtered (Wave) shapes on to subjects. Below are some readings that I had used to create the 'designs'. It's like doing positive-negative or black and white graphics and compose into a design. Since the designs are white like the background, remember to do Select Objects to throw out the 'excess' around the subject. Merge them from layers and do colour change by Gradient Map. Could this be the next Paper Cut style ?

Some Wave Results and Readings from two columns ie. Minimum and Maximum and for Scale, Horizontal and Vertical.

Layer Style - Drop Shadow

2009-10-17T22:18:00.015+08:00

The Idea by Drop Shadow.

Some Closeups.

Oval shapes as Hillscape and add Clouds - turn down by Opacity.

Bend some lines inbetween leaves by Warping. Keep in Layers !

Throw in more leaves but keep balance with space. Keep some of the leaves shadows incontrast by adjusting only of Opacity in the Drop Shadow reading guide as below.

The Drop Shadow reading to all layers as this ; Blend Mode - Multiply, Opacity - 28, Angle 138 use Global Light, Distance - 123, Spread - 11 and Size maximum at 250. Keep Noise - 0. The leaves is done straight and symmetrical ; drawn, cut and arranged with Grid references.

... and add a subject - Bee, bug, butterfly etc and the Closeup below.

Camouflage

2009-10-13T15:12:00.009+08:00

Three part CloseUps.

Begin with dividing into Sections. Draw or Cut shapes with Polygonal Lasso Tool.

Darken either with Brightness/Contrast or use a Burn Tool. Remember to do repeats of Select Objects to every layer.

Add leaves and shadow. Do a 'flat leaf' and Warp - bend, Dodge and Burn for tones.

Add Base. Burn sections for Contrast. Bright on Dark and reversed.

Throw out the background by applying Median. Click Filters-Noise-Median.

The Backgrounds. Sections and the Median Filter effect.

The Convertion from Scanned Newspaper and Colour Change by Gradient Map.

The sequence ;

Section A

Open the Black and White Newspaper Jpeg File.
Click A1 for Image-Adjustments-Gradient Map.

Section B /Gradient Map

Click B1 for Reverse.
Click B2 for Gradient Editor.

Section C /Gradient Editor

Click C1 for Presets.
Click C2 for Stops.
Click C3 for Colour Selection.

Section D /Select stop colour

Click on D1 to choose colour within square.
D2 is the colour selection and the immediate colour change at the back - shown with arrow.

Syawal Coming !

2009-09-16T11:56:00.011+08:00

Wishing Malaysians
Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri
Maaf Zahir Batin 1430 Hijrah

Have a Save Journey this Holidays.

The making ;

Design a Shape, Fill Colour, Copy and Paste, Compose, Work in Layers, Change Colour fast by Hue Saturation, Group and Duplicate Group, Merge Duplicate Group as Master (last image) and start colour change by Hue Saturation.

The following are results from hue saturation.

Or use Colour Balance. Either individual or combination shades of RGB ; Reddish, Greenish or Bluish colours are seen more prominent when apply.

As usual I like to do the Calligraphy part in Illustrator, freehand only with a mouse. I drew it slightly bigger than the Canvas size in Photoshop, this should be sharp when reduced.

I had used the Paint Brush Tool to run the lines. Enlarged lines under Stroke about 10 pt. Save a copy as Ai. and export another as Psd (Photoshop File).
Open up Photoshop ; Group the Layers, Duplicate Group and Merge ; Drag the Calligraphy over the Working File and do Transform-Distort.

Others - Apply for background

‘Wipe‘ at one side or corner of a selected background with an Eraser Tool to create the ‘high and low’ part. Use a bigger Master Diameter but set low on Hardness.

And the lights …pelita !

The method are Draw with Rectangular and Elliptical Marquee Tool. Fill with any colour and bring down the shades by Opacity. Throw out the overlapping layers by doing Selected Objects. This would be the Pelita on the left. Group and Duplicate Group. Move the Duplicate Group in the centre. The Pelita in the centre is a result from Gradient Overlay. Apply gradient colour to every layer and repeat Group and Duplicate Group. Merged the Duplicate Group and move it to the right as one layer. Duplicate more of this single layer and apply Hue Saturation for colour change.

Illustrator Brush Strokes

2009-09-16T11:33:00.005+08:00

Doesn’t matter if you can’t read this. I wanted to show some Artistic Scroll Pen under Brush Lines found in Illustrator which is quite interesting when apply to Calligraphy and perhaps imagine a face, tree, simple landscape etc created from these brushes in Illustrator. I need to work on it.

Logo or watermark

2009-09-09T15:22:00.008+08:00

A watermark over a photo for my other photo blog. Turn down by layerblend - Opacity. Click Arrow Tool and Press 2 for 20 % or 4 for 40 % etc.

Here's the sequence ;

I had done some thinking and finalised with typing sunfish2312, break the lines into three and search for a typeface or font. I chose Agency FB, flush left and right for this font layout. Click the cursor into the text and use the left and right arrows of the keyboard to space them out. Press Alt - right arrow or left.

Next, I draw the mola or sunfish - some infos of the fish right below.

I placed the graphic mola on top of the text and embedded it in a square or rectangle. I provide a little breathing area for the design within.

As usual remember to group the working layers. Duplicate Group and merge the Duplicate Group. That would be in one piece. Duplicate another to work on effect.

With that complete, I had done a simple Wave effect to the whole watermark and the reading as above.

For visualisation after reduction ; I copied and reduced at 33 %. This is 'white' on dark Photos.

Here's another way of changing 'white' to 'black'. Work on Hue Saturation and change its intensity and this is whenever the watermark needs to go on light or bright photos.

Infos of Sunfish Current Record

The current record for the heaviest sunfish in The Guinness Book of Animal Records belongs to a Mola mola that was struck on September 18, 1908 by the Australian steamship SS Fiona about 40 miles (65 kilometers) from Sydney. The fish was towed to port where it was measured and apparently weighed.

According to accounts of the incident published in the March 1928 issue of scientific Monthly and the December 10, 1910 issue of The Wide World Magazine, the fish measured 3.1 meters (10 feet) in horizontal length, 4.26 meters (14 feet) in vertical length, and weighed 2 tons 4 hundredweight, which converts to 4,927 pounds.

NationalGeography.com news

Idea !

2009-09-02T14:38:00.012+08:00

In Photoshop, I began with an image, filtered and formed by distortions. I apply the usual Artistic Filters like Cut Out, Dry Brush, Sponge and Paint Daubs - Sparkle.

In Distort, I used Wave and Twirl ... so I could get a circle from a square !

These are the readings for Wave and Twirl and the enlargements.

Next, prepare a shape and do composition.

Copy and Paste. Arrange in layers. Group. Duplicate Group and merge layers in Duplicate Group into a single layer. With that single layer, for size, I make it look bigger at one end and smaller on the other from distortion. Any excessive of those patterns are trimmed as shown below.

Distort - of a merged layer/one piece.

The trimming part, Click outside with the Magic Wand Tool and Do Invert (Ctrl -Shift- I) and press delete. Reminder - this apply to the merged layer.

Still on that layer, click inside the circle with a Magic Wand tool and delete the inner excessive design. Remember to do Select Object.

For the 'fruits' ; Group the layers within the highlighted red lines. Duplicate the Group and merge the layers in it. The merged layer is indicated in black line.

Click on the merged layer in the layer pallette and apply colour change - glide the slider with arrow shown above for hue saturation - this one is purplish.

I chose red - like red fruits on a green tree !

Up to this stage, I had saved this as Jpeg file in Photoshop . Copy, then paste into Illustrator. Work over the little curve text ; then save back and view in Photoshop.

Hope you have an idea, Marvic !

Marvic Backgrounds

2009-09-02T13:27:00.010+08:00

Background by Gradient Overlay. Do the following :
1 Click Gradient Tool
2 Button to open up Presets
3 Make a selection
4 Button to move to other presets. Click Ok in there.
These steps are repeated in Method.

The Method as this ;

Get any shape.

This way (as diagram above) to Click Layer - Layer Style - Gradient Overlay or

with No 1 (Click Layer) and No 2 (Layer Style) done, move to Gradient Overlay No 3 which is select Noise Samples - Transparent Pastel. No 4 is the immediate result. End.

Note : Basic Presets found in Photoshop are such as Colour Harmonies, Noise Samples, Pastel, Metals, Special Effects etc. And in choosing Noise Samples there are Blues, Greens, Sunrise, Pastel, Purple, Deep Sea, Ultra Violet, Noisy Spectrum and Transparent Pastel.

Retain the selections as above and discover a big difference when applying gradient as shown in the diagram below. Imagine circulating, zig zagging and have your flow of lines and strokes for background.

With Transparent Pastel selected, click on the Gradient tool and click again and drag from outside into X as shown. The results are the ones around it.

Do more overlapping and a design is form.

From one, I had applied 6 more of Hue Saturation for Colour Change and the results as below ;

This one had been used earlier.

... or keep simple as you have done and add/play around with Decorative text to compensate space. And if those colourful visuals above would take up your printing colours - print slightly smaller - retain around 75% and cut down to Standard instead of High for Quality.

Thanks Marvic ! ... I discover some interesting ways working into Gradient Overlay ! I did not place any watermarks here for your references.

Unwind !

2009-08-07T17:01:00.012+08:00

Going outdoor with friends this weekend. This time we are back to Sembilan Islands – 2 hours drive from KL and a few hundred meters to the south of Pangkor. There’ll be plenty of sun, wind, waves, sea sick and lack of sleep ; All for free !

Here, I illustrate a simple 6 seconds vid from Flash. Working from back to front. Text first – make it move. Then draw simple graphics of fish, line and splash.
Only the fish is motion path i.e making it go round a hidden line.

Colour change is easy with Stroke Colour or Fill Colour .

6 frames storyboard.

Be back next week !

Imaginative Art

2009-08-06T11:09:00.015+08:00

I drew plenty of these alien figures the last six days somehow it did not blend much with the whole setting. Then, I sat for 2 hours this morning and this came by. No sketching as usual, I kept warping, transforming and altering in Photoshop. Since every post are recent - I let this go ... !

Many more to work on over time ; detail on the figures, the shadow part, the clouds, background, the blur palm edges, adjusting mood from dark clouds and lighting etc - that's playing with Omni light effects under Render in Photoshop.

This is the shot, sitting at a coffee table waiting for what I ordered and when filtered - that's Filter-Stylize-Extrude, Pyramids at 30 pixels and random.

A few of these kites keep changing with Perspective in Layout.

Warping in never easy without readings, work symmetries !

The Palms - wind indicators

Work a composition for the kites. Fade by Opacity or Dodge.

Fill up the areas with clouds and little background in the lower images.

Shadow Style. I like this way :

Mother and Child. Duplicate the Mother's right hand in the Layer Pallette.

Do Alt-I-A-H, shortcut for Hue, Saturation. Hue - 100, Saturation minus 100 and Lightness minus 100. It gets solid black.

Do Gaussian Blur at 28.0 pixels. Filter-Blur-Gaussian Blur.

Send to the back by dragging down the layer in the Layer Pallette. One Layer down.

Cut off the unwanted shadow marked in red. Do Opacity to the remaining shadow and Erase lightly at the edges.

Add background colour by Gradient Overlay ; I had two layers stacked over the other with Opacity at 50 each (i.e One layer at 50 and the other also at 50). The layers are 1.Purple Blue to Yellow and 2.Black, Green, Orange and White as shown in the diagram below. Try other combinations at 30/70 or 40/60.

Add text.

Any further infos, technical or anything you know best are welcome.

Pixelate - Colour Halftone

2009-08-03T19:03:00.011+08:00

While printers would correctly registered dots for printing, I find moiré effects in Photoshop ; arty, colour mixed and beautiful polka from changing angles and pixels under Pixelate - Color Halftone.

To do this –

Draw by Polygonal Lasso Tool. Fill or cut out from Solid colours. Do Opacity from Layer Blending for ‘screen’ effect as above. This would be the guide and the usual step to extract shapes.

In the Layer Pallette, form the layers into a Group and Duplicate Group to work with.

Working from the Duplicate Group (Guide Layers), cut each layers from different filtered images. Repeat Object selection to every layer, copy and paste into position for this process. To view overall of the filtered cut outs, shut off the Guide Layers in the Layer Pallette.

The above image is how it looks like from the cut outs OR skip this and simply get a photo, any shape, it works. Don't worry about you need to do calibration for your processor - unpredictable results are just amazing !

Apply Filter - Pixelate - Colour Halftone.

Set pixel to maximum 127 while
the other Channels set to
Channel 1, 105 for Cyan (C)
Channel 2, 90 for Magenta (M)
Channel 3, 75 for Yellow, and (Y)
Channel 4, 45 for Black (K).

This is at maximum 127, 4 is minimum !

This is at 38 pixels and enlarged.

While this is when all the Channels are at 45 Degrees and 127 pixels !

Filtered images in this case are images from photos, drawings etc that has undergone artistic effects such as dry brush, paint daubs, sponge etc. Look into Filters – Artistic - and the list of basic filters in there. Do a few or differences by colour.

Mix Match

2009-07-13T14:58:00.004+08:00

Collage work from Green and Red Chillies, Brinjal, Tomatoes, Lemon, Kiwi, Corn, Watermelon and Durian. I found them in my neighbours kitchen, make some shots, do the edge outs in Photoshop, shuffled for combinations and composed.

The bending, twirling and waving are some distortion styles applied. Colour change by Hue, Saturation and also Colour Balance. Any title will do - Hair Styles, Fruit Face, Ready Smile, Friends, Mix Match etc.

Superimposed - Style 1

2009-07-10T13:04:00.006+08:00

I like this method. It can be done to vehicles, people, trees etc. The method slowed down only from cutting out clean lines in layers. The cuts or edge outs is done with the Polygonal Lasso Tool. Three layers as this is okay with time. Change colour with Gradient Map, Gradient Overlay or do Colour Balance.

The method, work from back to front. Pic 3 from top is the real shot. As seen to the shots, read from 1 - 3.

3. Shoot the whole figure.

2. Shoot, Place down left hand.

1. Shoot, Place down right hand.

Remember avoid movement as it needs to be cut around - sharp. Then, Blur edges can be apply under Filter.

See the Opacity differences of the Hands - I have cut out into layers.

Here, I changed Opacity for the transparent effect and work on the hues enhancement.

... and here, I cropped tighter.

Superimposed - Style 2

2009-07-10T12:36:00.006+08:00

Though procedures are alike - the effect is different. From identical shapes - Do scale for different sizes as above in black to grey (Group this layers - Group 1). Randomly stack these sizes for Composition. 3 - 4 layers is fine for this overlapping effect. Do this on a lighter base for guide.

Turn on the Base Opacity back to 100 percent. Do Object Selection to every layers - Copy and paste in place - over the Black to Grey guide or Group 1.

Do Opacity(above) or shut off the Base layer(below) in the layer pallette. Done.

Tired ? Here's a card - Happy Unwind !

Superimposed - Style 3

2009-07-10T10:19:00.006+08:00

Stack several shots in Layers.
Group the Layers as Group 1.
Duplicate Group 1 and merge as Group 2.

Over Group 2 - Draw simple shapes in Layers - do Opacity for transparent effect.

Duplicate, Scale and Distort the Shapes

Do Object Selection to every layer and copy out Group 2. Layer Blend each Layer Opacities.( See Layers - Layer Style - Blending Options - Opacity )

Do colour Hue, Saturation and Lightness plus Brightness and Contrast.

I've change slightly for contrast at the antennas - two layers overlapping (black and white) and erasing the sides for gradient effect. Stop here, or ...

... add Base (Open up Group 2 in the Layer Pallette) work on Hues and Layer Blend - Do Opacity at 28.
This can be a banner for your blog. Do composition, add trees, insects, birds by simple shapes - Do Opacity or throw out the base or do invert or reverse of the above, Add text.

Thank You !

2009-06-11T17:15:00.002+08:00

illustration no 3

2009-06-11T16:48:00.002+08:00

illustration no 4

2009-05-26T18:52:00.007+08:00

illustration no 5

2009-05-26T18:48:00.003+08:00

illustration no 8

2009-05-26T18:39:00.002+08:00

illustration no 9

2009-05-26T18:34:00.003+08:00

illustration no 10

2009-05-26T18:20:00.006+08:00

illustration no 11

2009-05-08T19:31:00.002+08:00

illustration no 12

2009-05-08T19:23:00.002+08:00

illustration no 13

2009-05-08T19:09:00.005+08:00

illustration no 14

2009-05-08T19:03:00.005+08:00

illustration no 15

2009-04-27T17:22:00.002+08:00

illustration no 16

2009-04-27T17:18:00.002+08:00

Illustration No 17

2009-04-22T17:20:00.001+08:00

Illustration No 18

2009-04-22T15:32:00.004+08:00

For the next few weeks, I would do some of these artworks categorize under personal work mainly of illustrations and without any specific title. No tutorial, starting from back to front and to begin with No 18.

Here goes . . .

Science Art

2009-04-08T09:26:00.008+08:00

GM and GO

2009-04-03T11:18:00.014+08:00

Possibilities by Rotation in Transform and at arranging and aligning the angles in drawing these gears. I start with a line ; plenty of Copying and Rotating, Group, Duplicate Group and Merge, do Distorts and Perspectives, keep Stacking them in Layers, apply the Image Adjustments and the Layer Styles.

And the subject here is Gradient Map and Gradient Overlay. The difference - GM is found under Image and GO under Layer. Both could apply solid colour or gradient of mono ie. from one to multicolours by clicking into Presets.

The Presets are Colour Harmonies, Metal, Noise Samples, Pastels, Simple, Special Effects and Spectrum – these are found in standard Presets or you can customise a new colour and save under the above.

In this exercise, each of these layers is done by repeating steps as shown in the tutorial diagram below with some are Layer Blend with Drop Shadow. Colour change is indeed simple in here and as it change instantly whenever the adjustments is made.

Presets of Simple – Solid Colours

Presets of Gradient Overlay – Colour Harmonies

The Tutorial

... and before that ; Arranging the Layers from top to bottom, Grouping them in the Layer Pallette is organising Composition and Layout. Select appropraite images in the Layer Pallette and save as Jpeg files. Open up the Files and apply text as below ; save them as Php. See the numbered sequences . . .

And, how the two colour ends work. . .

If you have difficulty into understanding this - just look into this top image ; clicking into the stops (pointing with little arrows) you are making Colour Change !

The result of one . . .

... and all by Presets of Pastels !

Earth Hour

2009-03-27T10:10:00.009+08:00

Second Video of Flash. The convertion into .mov - Quicktime. About 5 seconds and a little allowance towards the end.

Earth Hour this Saturday 28th March at 8.30pm. It's about environmental awareness ; started in Sydney and last year over 23 global cities and 300 smaller cities worldwide participated in Earth Hour. It's our first try - for a reason about global warming, emissions of carbons, unhealthy API's, and weather change.

Let's observed the 'Blackout' for an hour and do our fair share of keeping up with the world on climate change.

as for the video ... the timeline, and the storyboard directly into Flash.

5 seconds of Flash

2009-03-23T13:24:00.017+08:00

Hooray !!! It's my first video ... of Flash CS3. Only 5 seconds but it took me almost a day to agree with everything. I must look into some of the followings, again -

Why do anything pasted into Flash comes in squares - what's not right at copying.
How to take away or hide the extras. How to edge out objects effectively.
Why convert and the advantage between symbol, button and graphics.
Timeline - how does it work. 12 fps at 60 frames is 5 seconds. How to undock and preview at 300 frames and add sounds.
What's should come first of objects and to animate it - add Layer, paste objects, insert motion tween, insert keyframe, properties, etc.

Note : Flash files ( swf.) is not accepted in here. I had export it into avi. and mov. This one above is mov. and the shadow part did not end up correctly and so is the yatch. Should I give some allowance to that last few frames, mmm ?

The timeline at 60 frames.

The Storyboard extract from Flash Files.

Hue Saturation and Lightness

2009-03-19T17:56:00.004+08:00

Drawings directly with the polygonal lasso tool. Do clouds with Brush No 100, warp and reduce. The ship's smoke part is challenging because I wanted exactly as seen here and achieve from correct readings for Distort-Wave.

The other combinations

Choose, Add text and Layer Style.

Working with layers makes colour change easy. From hue, saturation and lightness, plenty of colour combinations can be work out but remember to take down the readings or at least save into a new file or make it into a new layer in Php.

Activate any layer by clicking in the Layer Palette and make the colour change. Go to Image-Adjustments-Hue, Saturation. The change can be made to one or all. Change the readings and visualise the desired colour effects ; save anything that's extra colourful and from interesting combinations and some need filters - that is into another chapter.

Save every adjustments as Jpeg files.

Here, I have only done on the ocean/globe part as for hue, saturation and lightness. The sky was done with Gradient Map.

Background

2009-03-16T13:23:00.012+08:00

This is simple if you sketch or just draw on paper. But with Photoshop, you need to do the following.

1 Draw Circle with the Elliptical tool.

2 Compress the circle into an oval by Scale.

Here, do pointed ends by Warping. See attached diagram.

3 Rotate 45 degrees.

4 Reduce within Grid Lines.

5 Copy No 4 and Flip Horizontal/Vertical into No 5.

For No 2.

... and No 3 , use grid lines.

Arrange No 5 into a design - Group and merge.
Use this as shape guide.

Use the guide to copy a filtered image.

Apply 'outlines' by Layer Style - Stroke. Pick colour for the lines and structure size - circled in Red.

A contrast background at the back in the diagram helps to preview/visualise the outlines.

I 've added little circles or dots in Black or White and the outlines done thicker here.

... and two more samples of coloured outlines from Layer-Stroke.

... or go plain without an outline.

Enlarged.

Add Shadow

2009-03-16T09:14:00.014+08:00

A cactus closeup as the filtered image.

The idea.

The convertions in Layers and drawn with the Polygonal Lasso Tool.
Save as Photoshop File – Php. Save another as Jpeg file for the Shadow part - (Shadow effect Jpeg file)

Open up the Shadow Effect Jpeg File, copy and paste it back into the Php File. Do Layer Blend at 30 % or click the Move Tool in the Tool Menu and press numeral 3.

Do Gaussian Blur ; Radius about 30 pixels. Wipe off slightly in the lower ends with an Eraser Tool – Use a big Master Diameter, Low at Hardness and reduce the Eraser Tool opacity to about 50 %.

Use a Burn Tool to darken the top part.

The result.

Open up the other layers. Done.

Duplicate the shadow part if you have other ideas.

… from the Duplicate Shadow Layer, move into warping for this above effect. Shut off the previous Shadow Layer in the Layer Palette incomparison.

and more ...

Review - Thinking Batik

2009-03-12T11:17:00.022+08:00

Review for tutorial and the formula for other works from this method ;

Two ways of doing it -

1 Paste Into method - slightly advanced
2 Cut and Paste method - shown here.

Both ways should be done in Layers.

The finished.

I began with the selected image - anything from this and whatever possible to run around with the Polygonal Lasso Tool.

Crop or Enlarge to the needed size. The canvas size is important as it affects the bytes - set about between A4 to A3. This one is 14.4 " x 10.6 ".

Pick the Polygonal Lasso Tool and 'draw'. Go around as shown.

Copy the marked Polygonal Lasso line and paste. Shortcut - Ctrl C (Copy) and Ctrl V (Paste).

A new layer of what copied is shown in the Layer Palette.

Next, Duplicate the layer.

The Duplicate layer is shown in the Layer Palette.

Click on the Set Foreground Colour at the Tools Menu. Pick colour - Black. Activate the Duplicate copy as shown by clicking on it in the Layer Palette.

For Selecting Objects.

Use the Magic Wand Tool and click anywhere outside the duplicate copy. Then, select invert. Press Ctrl + Shift + I for Invert. The subject is selected (1).

Pick Brush - Here, Go for brush No 300, master diameter between 300 - 400 and hardness at 100%. That's Solid. Run the brush with that setting inside the selected layer as shown - let's call it Black Layer.

Leave that aside.

Now look into what's filtered. Select any stocks that you might have prepare earlier or you just set. Cut out the area you like by copying. For this example I choose as above.

(Further explanation about filters is found in the last few diagrams)

From the copied filtered image ; paste it over the Black layer.

Click on the Copied Filtered Layer in the Layer Palette and drag it down. Note : Placing the layer lasts in the Layer Palette is sending the Layer to the back.

It would look like this where the Copied Filtered Image is send to the back of the Black layer. Check the size. Ctrl T for Transform. Drag the corners and extend the size by the right proportions. Proportion readings is found at the top and appears when activate Transform.

The Copied Filtered Image looks as this when extend.

Click Black Layer in the Layer Palette and Repeat (1) to select it.

Next, is a bit tricky.

With the Black Layer selected on screen ; To copy the one underneath - Activate the Copied Filtered Image layer by clicking this layer in the Layer Palette.

Now copy the Copied Filtered Image and paste.

The Black Layer acts as a shape guide.

Shut off the other layers to preview in the Layer Palette.

So that's about it of method !

And to continue ...

How to make this. I cut/copy the Selected Image (last layer in diagram) and paste. A new layer is produce.
Shut off the one underneath in the Layer Palette.

With one layer active, Click the Move Tool in the Tool Menu then press any numeral to lighten the intensity of the active layer. This is about 3 - 4. 3 is thirty, 4 - fourty. Press 33, then it is 33% Opacity.

Note : only the selected layer is affected.

And to do the toning - I choose the burn and dodge tools to render them. But remember to apply (1) ie. Selecting Objects.

Select and embed the objects first then apply the burn and dodge. With a fence like around the objects - shading would be easier.

This one is on the right. See the difference.

Apply the left.

Done. It does take plenty of work and time to repeat the sequences and especially the line work.

What if this is a drawing ?

As Drawings ; These needs to be sorted out in Layers. And from the guided layers apply the filtered images by copying into it.

The procedures are the same except for a drawing - you need to run twice. Once by tools of drawing on paper and another in Photoshop with the Polygonal Lasso.

Keep easy lines if you like - with no shoes !

Repeats and Complete.

The Filtered Images

Apply these three. Cut Out, Dry Brush and Paint Daubs. Effects is best with Paint Daubs Sparkle last. And the readings shown as below.

And finally set some Image Adjusments. Click Image-Adjustments-Hue/Saturations.

Save as Jpeg Files and between 250 - 400 bytes. Do a few of these as selections.

I hope everyone can understand my explanation in here and could use this guide to do some artworks with Photoshop.

Happy Photoshopping !

Escorts

2009-03-04T14:18:00.026+08:00

Last Sunday, a pond in Jengka, Pahang – when I was about to start fishing and it rained. Looking up into the sky ; the clouds are moving fast and I saw …
what else, a filtered effects from Dry Brush, Paint Daubs, sparkled and hued.

Escorts – accompanying another as mark of honour. Working the background from blurred clouds and colour change subjects are shuffled for a layout. All subjects by warping with Blur effects from Gaussian Blur and the lights are coloured rectangles, blurred, perspectives and positioned.

The readings in here and warping lines ;

Apply Lens Flare, above and Omni Lights below, to bring out the 'shiners'. Note the Omni Readings for Intensity, and Properties on Gloss, Materials, Exposures and Ambience.

The 'Finished'

Some making, four legged Whallypus - Whale + Octopus !

The lights - (not shown here) which is Rectangular Fill Ups, Gaussian Blur about 25 pixels, Perspective and Position. Below, see the possibility of colour change in Gradient Map - from yellow to blue or white !

And for the background ; Cloud making

Route Map

2009-03-04T14:10:00.012+08:00

Route Map. The easiest would be line sketch. This is filtered warped, cut out and transform. Plenty more to go with in here like trees and birds, ... black birds !

Brush No 100 and Gaussian Blur for the Clouds.

Lines

2009-03-04T14:09:00.011+08:00

Everything starts with a pencil . ( Can I change this ... )

Lines, but not with the Pen tool. I had drawn my lines from rectangles, warp into shapes, copy and rewarp. See 1 st image and you know why it matters solving thickness, tranform immediate shapes, shortcuts, time, repeating of copies in groups and arrangements. Do slightly big for sharpness. Views by arrangement in layers, group and duplicate groups.

Get one coloured as Master and with the Master ready - Colour change is fast from hues, saturation, lightness and gradient map. No fill ups into blank outlines required for next colour change.

This exercise is backup with background inserts which in form of a sketch, one would scribble something around a subject - little nice things. Anything goes for the background inserts as it just helps to fill up, decorate, beautifies, enhance and exercising screening or layer blending.

The inserts. Never thought of the shape when I started but keep warping and allow anything that comes by ! - even if it does not blend with the subject.

Arrange the inserts, around the subject, rotate, mirror etc.

The 'Line drawing' - one at a time, draw into a row and group, make copies and stack over. All by warping.

The Master, above ; and some selection of colour change as below. The insert are merged together as a layer and one layer blend at 38 for comparison between the two background intensities.

Liquify

2009-02-25T16:34:00.007+08:00

Fox - Fox view, Fox News, Foxit, Fox TV, Firefox ...

A step further with colour ...

Trying out liquify on animals - it's safe anyway !

Do check on caturist.blogspot.com who indeed is really good at this and happens to be The Liquify Man !

Hip Hip Hippo !

2009-02-25T16:25:00.009+08:00

Place over

2009-02-23T16:45:00.011+08:00

Collage + Illustration + Sketch

Arrrghh !!!

2009-02-13T17:36:00.008+08:00

Tonal Colour

Flat Colour

Wants to convert this into a soft toy ?

... make all the pointed edges - rounded !

As for the hands, with Photoshop now ;

Do flat colouring as No 1.

Make two copies as No 2 and No 3 and colour as shown. No 3, make a cutout as No 4 with Elliptical Tool and place into No 5.

This way is faster and avoid smudging when colouring. Colouring in here is only with the tool brushes - no effects by 3D rendering, filters or lighting.

Save all working drawings for references.

Yesterday's sketch.

Pixelate except mosaic !

2009-02-11T17:26:00.009+08:00

One can do plenty of effects as above just from Filters. Cut Out, Paint Dauds, Dry Brush and Poster Edges to name a few as Stage 1 or Master. Here are some of the try outs on Pixelate except mosaic after Stage 1. Then, Stage 2, add inverts, hue saturation or render clouds.

No Tablet PC was used here and the previous postings. Wish I had one as I really like to sketch in there. For now this is just the ordinary mouse to computer drawing with the polygonal lasso and elliptical tool in Photoshop CS3.

Reflection

2009-02-06T17:40:00.004+08:00

Some techniques in here ;

From a filtered image, warp into a circle

Do Distort - Wave

Warp for the Palm leaves

The Coconuts with Drop Shadow

The illustrations. Use different Brush Numbers and change Opacity variations. It takes plenty of time moving in and out for the right brush impressions when changing opacity.

As for the reflection, I took the ACD Photomanager effects to do it.

Here's how.

Open up ACD PhotoManager. Click Effects

Select Effect - Water

Change accordingly from the setting panel on the right

Save. ( This Save Jpeg file is then apply back into the whole picture !)

Geometrics and Organics

2009-02-06T17:04:00.007+08:00

Planes. Different Opacity of planes builds up a form and this took me about 40 minutes for this. I have done this in Photoshop and hope to add more subject and elements for composition.

Use the Polygonal lasso tool to do the geometrics and Elliptical Marquee tool to do the ovals. Fill with bucket tool in different layers. Group. Duplicate the group and merge. Select with magic wand, invert and paint black for the shadow part. Distort and skew to align as shadow and layer blend at 20.

Imaginative art

2009-01-30T09:11:00.020+08:00

Imaginative art fantasy like from my Photoshop CS3 files done during some holidays early this week as I kept warping shapes from the image above.

There is no detail work in here as it would require plenty of time to stack cut outs, outlining shapes and also creating expressions - and huge bytes involved. This is straightforward, simple, one piece warping unless require, creating shapes and match the combinations.

Save in recommended sizes, (reduce bytes by clicking Image Size ; Alt-Ctrl-I and do Constrain Proportions, check bytes when saving ) do less layering and save different files to speed opening of files and also to avoid Insufficient Memory while filtering because it does take a lot of space. Colour again varies in the making and to me ; I would look for a little ‘texture like’ effect and do overall with it – I choose blue.

Others would be layering the subject from foreground to background and do blending. Also soften edges with eraser, dodge or burn tool to fade and merge, do reverse and wave for reflections and always have something as key visual ; the attractor - in this case it's the blue flower.

Note : Warping is basically turnaround shapes without readings (numeral settings) in Photoshop but filterings do.

Some warping images.

Landscapes

Light Effects

Apply one or both for effects and mood - Spotlight lighting and Omni Lights !

Different Lens Flare sizes apply at those flyers 'bringing light to the flower'.

I did not do image enhancement after these effects otherwise it would look like picture 5 & 6, the enlargement from top.

New Year ... again !

2009-01-23T17:20:00.002+08:00

Here comes another New Year ; wishing all Chinese friends and visitors - a Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year !

Some info's ;

Parallel lines above before the slant by warping.

Overlap and do Layer styles - drop shadow

Work with layers and reduction proportion is easy

Finish.

Fields

2009-01-17T16:33:00.011+08:00

I wanted to maximize drop shadow in this task and the effects is best when the subject is white. You need nice shapes to look good with shadow as overlapping of these shapes then produces forms from adjusting opacity, distant, spread and size.

In here, turn colour to white by gradient map and work on layer style. I suppose there is a standard reading to create sort like depth of field - adjusting dark to light for distance subjects for this task. I did not do for the colour part but slightly there for the white one. Though not to obvious as it varies with size or enlargement.

The basics are 'draw' by warping and arrange for composition.

This for the convertion - left, was liquified !

The fields, stack them, trim when overlap and warp

Birds, clouds, guitarman, pond and the reflection

I like the tree and applying the drop shadow makes it 3D

Some hang overs ...

... crippers and chirpy

The finished, and trying one on white as below.

The tree needs to be a little rugged at the edges, less roundish for this white try out.

A white button

2009-01-09T14:48:00.022+08:00

From imagination and recent, I have produce these two artworks from Photoshop CS3. Though it’s common among illustrators to see such a layout, I’ve put it slightly different here by technique. And without references when most illustrators do require, I have given the thought to just warp around imaginative combinations and build up a composition.

Usually and as always important with time ; work is within a week - about 3 hours daily plus all the ‘proofs’. I have also intentionally ‘break’ these into three. The standard medium size is 10.8" x 14.4". The canvas size is 32.6” by 14.4”.

Shot on a digital camera and convert in Photoshop as below.

And the making ...

The Snail's two piece warping

The leaves

... and the other

2009-01-09T12:47:00.015+08:00

The making ...

When warping, I encounter many bizzare looking shapes. From these shapes, one can create some fantasy art and include ‘out of this world’ sky and foreground.

Here is one shape of a ...

Wishing Everyone

2008-12-31T09:45:00.009+08:00

Wishing You A Happy New Year.

The making as below ;

Next !

2008-12-30T12:23:00.015+08:00

What's on the other side ? Flagging to commemorate the end and beginning - switching into the new year with this visual.

In Photoshop, all the 'filtered clothes' are warped in this making.

By an atoll

2008-12-22T19:07:00.012+08:00

2312 is tomorrow. This is a number I associate with my blog. I might not know what's coming up and I published these now, some visuals done within several days. With time allocated and I wanted to do seven but could managed only five. I won't be writing about ideas or how it was derived, it can go on .. and on ... but what's next ? For now, No choosing - I like them all !

No Man's land - Atoll's Lagoon