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Creating Smoke
Some time ago I had posted an article showing how to create a smoke effect in photoshop, and to achieve that I used a photo of smoke and some photoshop filters. However, some people had said at the time that I should have done the smoke as well and it´s exactly what I will show on this post right now. I had previously thought about what would be the best way to create smoke in photoshop, and I’ve read some tutorials online and watched some episodes of the amazing pixelPerfect podcast, to find a good and easy solution for the matter at hand. Actually it was easier than I had expected. 1 - Create some Shapes: I created some random shapes. 2 - Apply a Gaussian blur on each shape 3 - Using the liquify filter 4 - Positioning the shapes 5 - Adding some colors Add a background color on the layer of the shape, otherwise the Hue/Saturation won't work 6 - Creating a cloud behind the smoke Set a feather with a high value, like 40 to 80, and after that apply the hue/saturation on the cloud too 7 - Adding a gradient to create an atmosphere The gradient will give a atmosphere and more depth to the image Final Result The whole process took me about 30 to 40 minutes tops, it’s pretty simple, although it can be quite hard to create a natural smoke with the liquify filter, the best thing to do is to play with the brushes and with the tools to achieve the desired effect.
The Joomp wallpaper
Here I'm again writing about some stuff that I have done or seen online. In my last article I had shown how to create a wallpaper with some free stuff like icons and textures. Well in this article I wanna show you another wallpaper that I did using basically photoshop, for a company which I have been working for, Joomp. The idea for the wallpaper was a dark image with some light and smoke effects. Below there are images showing step by step how I created that. Step 1: Using the lasso tool, I set a feather of 60px and drew an abstract shape like a cloud. Try to create a small shape, it will get bigger when you add the clouds though Step 2: Filter > Render > Clouds The cloud is black and white Step 3: Image > Adjustments > Hue /Saturation, to make a bluish cloud. Choose colorize to be able to change the colors of the cloud Step 4: Using an image of smoke. I found this image at Digg.com, it was one of the most dugg posts there, really amazing p>Step 5: Mixing the images; set color dodge as blend mode to both layers. I just used some parts of the image and mixed them up Step 6: Adding the company's logo and a bit of glow. The joomp logo is behind the cloud Step 7: With a custom brush, I added some sparks over the double blue Os of the logo. Just play with the options there, I changed the scattering, shape dynamics and... I think I tried all of them Final step: The last thing was the address and slogan. The end result The .psd file used here can be downloaded, and if you have any doubt or want to ask or suggest something, just let me know.UPDATE: TAKE A LOOK HOW TO CREATE THE SMOKE FROM SCRATCH IN PHOTOHOP
Using some free stuff to create a wallpaper
Last week, I had some free time while waiting for some layouts to be approved, so I thought that it was a great time to test some free stuff that I had gotten and never used before. As everybody knows there are tons of free icons, textures, clip arts and stuff like that on line, and every time that I find something I automatically download it, what makes my computer's desktop a mess. Anyway, with a lot of brushes, textures and icons, I started to create my abduzeedo's wallpaper. The idea was pretty simple a collage of elements such as icons and brushes with a light beam coming from the sky as a UFO was abducting somebody. I started using a wooden texture and a gradient color to give it a bit of depth. Firstly I used a wooden texture with a gradient overlay After that I basically put some elements like a building with a woman, a crazy dude with a mask, an little deer on the top of the building. Started messing around The next thing that I did was pretty simple, I mirrored the elements, and aligned them in the center of the page. Same elemets, duplicated and reflected The image needed more elements, I put a rainbow behind the towers, added some more elements like those balloons over the girl, those tribal elements behind the buildings, everything downloaded and free. Spice it up a little bit The abduction laser bean was created and, basically, it's a gradient mesh with the hard light blend effect. The abduction part 1 To give more the idea of abduction, I put an illustration of myself behind the laser with a motion blur effect, so it looks like Im being abducted. The abduction part 2 At last but not least I added another illustration in the middle of the page, with some green branches behind it. The final result, really simple and fun. The whole image is nothing else than just a bunch of free stuff that can easily be found on the web. Anyhow, below there are some of the sites that I visited to get the elements I used on that wallpaper. Brusheshttp://gfxworld.org/web_templates/hi_res_tattoo_brush.htmlhttp://www.misprintedtype.com/v3/goodies.phphttp://www.psbrushes.net/index.php J3Cons.07 Updated (icons)http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/45651910/ More Iconshttp://gfxworld.org/icons/http://browse.deviantart.com/customization/icons/dock/http://www.kde-look.org/ Textures and Patternshttp://44suburbia.org/http://www.theinspirationgallery.com/http://www.kavewall.com/stock/index.html Podcasthttp://www.revision3.com/pixelperfect