Adobe Techniques

[rythemposition]

Thats is a great piece of art. The key to making a good photoshop picture is idea. The crazier the idea, the greater the picture will most likely come out to be. If you combine the right filters, you can make almost anything.

[mac_mogul]

Photoshop 7 was used for this tutorial...

In light of the March Image Contest, I figure it would be appropriate to show a kind of technique to create a simulated "neons" effect on either a car, or anything else that uses neon.

First Step: You need to pick out a picture. You should deffinitely choose a picture that does not allow you to see the ground underneath the car (unless you are extrememly talented and can work around this, in that case... You probably don't even need to look at this tutorial ) Your best bet would be a picture that was taken on either a cloudy day, or at dusk. This will ensure a good result.

Second Step: Create a new layer. Change the blending option to "Vivid Light" And keep the opacity at 100%.

Third Step: Activate your orignal picture layer. Now carefully select the area underneath the car that you wish to highlight. Light is a tricky thing to work with and for a more realistic look, a small amount of feathering is suggested. Also remember to select areas of the car tires, if visible, and other areas where the light might show through or on.

Fourth Step: Select your colors. Choose your base color. This should be a moderately dark color, but not too dark. Too dark and it won't show up. Now, select your second color. This should be the same base color, only choose the whitest value of this color without being too white.

Fifth Step: Activate your new layer while your selection areas are still selected. Now choose a large fuzzy brush along with your darker value color. Paint your area where the color would cover. Be careful not to get your paint too close to the edge of your selection or you will have a wierd looking edge on your light area. DO NOT DESELECT YOUR SELECTIONS!

Once this is completed, it doesn't look like much, but we're almost done.

Sixth Step: Now pick your lighter color and a smaller, not too much smaller, fuzzy brush. Paint in the edge underneath the car. It's kinda hard to specify this area without a picture, so you'll have to look at the example. Now, deselect.

Seventh Step: (If necessary) If you ended up with some sharp edges, get your blur tool and (after you have merged visible layers) blend it in where it needs to be blended.

Now you're done! If you deem any other modifications necessary, do so.

Now, step on over to the Image Contest and try out your newly aquired knowledge on the Nissan Skyline GTR! Good Luck!

Here are a couple of examples:

[McKlaxxhammer]

its a new sinise movie about a tough gangster

[ekÆsine]

nice neon effect mac_mogul. just 2 things I'd like to point out. your outline of the front bumbper goes too far up. you can see a thin black horizontal line in the green, thats where the bumper outline should be at. on the side neon lighting, light cannot go past solid objects like the tires, your light creeps underneath the tires. just trying to help you improve your PS skills. Keep up the great tutorials man!

[mac_mogul]

http://www.absolutecross.com

Has several cool photoshop tips, tricks, and tutorials...

I managed to come up with this by following their tutorials.

[Nubius]

if you want to create a straight line take your brush and use CTRL or ALT and you can do a straight line depending on the version of Photohop you're usigng

as far as I'm aware that's shift, not ctrl or alt...it was like this in ps4, 5, 6, and CS2 those are all the ones I've ever used

[crazybeans]

Nice neon effect mac but it might be easier to see what you have done if we could see the original image.

Also, the hand image with the ball and the straw or whatever it is, is great but the light rendering isn't as good as it could be. The ball is reflecting the hand at the same angel as the camera sees it and with no orbital reflection warping (if you understand what I'm trying to say). You should try fliping the reflection vertically and then using the "liquify" filter to add the warped reflection that the ball would produce. Other than that it look great.

[mac_mogul]

This is a easy, cheesy way to make a sort of cool electricity effect.

*Open Photoshop and create a new document preferably wallpaper size and make sure that your documents screen resolution is set to 72.

*Fill the document with black

*Pick out a favorite color and select it in your pallete along with the color White so your color pallette should look like this "Your Color/White"

*Now pick out a fairly large, soft brush, I used a size 150 for mine, and, using your color, not white, paint some lines either up and down the screen, or across... its your choice, but don't put them close together. make sure they're separated. (follow the animation if this confuses you)

*Now press "x" on the keyboard to select your white color. Either ctl+Click(Mac) or right click with your brush to adjust the size. On the size slider bar, take the slider to about half of your current size. Then trace the inside of your colored lines with the white. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it should be smooth

*Now press "x" again and select a brush half the size of your current brush and trace inside the white with your color. Once again, it doesn't have to be perfect, just smooth

*Press "X" one more time and get a brush half the size of your current brush and paint white inside your color. Doesn't have to be perfect, just smooth.

*Now, once this is all done, go to "filter" "sketch" "chrome" and move the detail and smoothness sliders to "10" then press OK

*Now you need to fade your chrome effect. Depending on your Photoshop version, the fade menue will either be under "Filter" or "Edit" Once you have the Fade dialogue up, choose either Overlay, or Soft Light. These will give you the best results, I used Soft light, but its a personal preference. The Opacity should stay at "100"

Now you have your creation. Its infinitely customizeable with color, lines, etc... so you could just play around with it and come up with something really cool later on.

This is a 340kb GIF, so it might take a few seconds depending on your connection.
http://home.ripway.com/2004-1/55037/tutorial.gif

[-mist|mac-]

Originally posted by mac_mogul
http://www.absolutecross.com

Has several cool photoshop tips, tricks, and tutorials...

I managed to come up with this by following their tutorials.

Wow.. You must tell me what tutorial did you use? Please please please..? *puppy eyes*

[mac_mogul]

Originally posted by -mist|mac-
Wow.. You must tell me what tutorial did you use? Please please please..? *puppy eyes*

I implemented a few of their tutorials. The smooth metal tutorial, and the glass button tutorial.