Trendy World Map

Filed under Photoshop Tutorials - Head Nerd @ January 13th, 2006

Trendy World Map

Make a rippling wave around effect around a nice rendering the continents.

1. Open a new document.

2. Create a new layer.Go to Filter > Render > Difference Clouds. Keep pressing Control + F until you find something you like.

3. Go to Filter > Artistic > Smudge Stick. Use the settings below.

4. Change the hue / saturation by going to Image > Adjustments > Hue / Saturation or pressing Ctrl + U. Use the settings below. Be sure to press colorize. You can select any hue you want, as that just changes the color.

5. My image now looks like this.

6. Duplicate the layer and change the blending mode of the top layer to “Color Burn”. Should look like this now.

7. Merge these two layers by pressing Control + E or go to Layer > Merge Down.

8. Now go to Filter > Distort > Glass and use these settings.

9. Mine Looks like this.

7. Now find a selecton of the world, I used the one below.

Click the image for a full-size view.

8. Find a selection close to 400 x 400 that you can copy and paste into your own document. Once you have this selection Cut it out of that image and paste it onto the PSD you are working on. Here’s what mine looks like now.

9. Go to Filter > Texture > Patchwork and use Square Size: 1 and Relief: 0. Look below for resulting look.

10. Now adde these effects to the blending optionsn for a finalized look.

Drop Shadow

Outer Glow

Stroke

11. The final product is below.

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New Year’s Ball Drop

Filed under Photoshop Tutorials - Head Nerd @ January 11th, 2006

New Year’s Ball Drop

Illuminate your new year with a special new year’s ball that will be sure to brighten up your designs.

1. Create a new document in Photoshop 400 x 400.

2. Use the rectangular marquee tool to make a selection that will be the pole.

3. Use the gradient tool with black and white as the default colors and fill the selection based on what you feel looks good.

4. Now go to Edit > Stroke. Use the settings below.

5. Now deselect the layer and you will see the pole.

6. Create a new layer and use the Elliptical Marquee Tool to center a circle on the pole. Change the foreground color to a lighter gold and the background to a darker gold. Then select the gradient tool and change the type to “Radial Gradient” Look below to see where that setting is located.

7. Now fill the circle you selected with that gradient. Play around with it to make it perfect.

8. Now for the Sparkling Lights. Select the Elliptical Tool again. Make a new layer. Now make small little white dots all over the ball by filling in the small selections you make with white. I figured out the smaller the dots, the better it looks.

9. Now go to Blending Options and add an outer glow. Settings are below.

Click the image to see the full size image.

10. You are all done now! Check it out below.

11. This doesn�t really look like a New Year’s Ball Drop unless you have some good backgrounds. I added in some different backgrounds to make the ball effect stand out!

12. And in case you were wondering, my inspiration for this tutorial were the new year of 2006 and these two images below.

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Modern Art

Filed under Photoshop Tutorials - Head Nerd @ January 9th, 2006

Modern Art

I went to the art museum and noticed the new gallery titled “Modern Art.” A lot of abstract stuff was there and the motto was “art in any form.” I decided to use my immagination and create some abstract pieces of art. Use your immagination to figure out what each image can represent.

1. Open a new photoshop document 400 x 400. Fill with black.

2. Go to Filter > Render > Fibers and use the settings below.

3. Go to Filter Liquify and mess around with it intil you get a general shape in the middle with lots of fancy stuff around it.

4. Change the Image mode to grayscale by going to Image > Mode > Grayscale. Press ok.

5. Change it to Indexed Color by going to Image > Mode > Indexed Color.

6. Now go to Image > Mode > Color Table and select Black body from the drop down menu.

7. Now change the image back to RGB by going to Image > Mode > RGB.

8. Go to Filter > Artistic > Cutout. Use Number of Levels: 4, Edge Simplicity: 4, and Edge Fidelity: 2.

9. Go to Filter > Brush Strokes > Angled Strokes and use Direction Balance: 50, Stroke Length: 15, and Sharpness: 3.

10. The above is the completed grahpic, but I added an black dot that serves as an eye because i immagined my creation as a fish. The black dot serves as an eye. The final product is below.