In this tutorial, you’ll learn to design a realistic calligraphy pen from scratch. The tutorial involves a simple use of the Pen Tool and a few flexible Layer Styles. Lighting and reflection techniques are explained throughout the tutorial. This might be a quite useful for icon enthusiasts. Let’s dive in…

Final Image Preview

Take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below.

Tutorial Details

• Program: Photoshop
• Version: CS
• Difficulty: Easy
• Estimated Completion Time: 25-35 mins

Step 1

Create a new document with these settings:

Step 2

Create a new layer set and name it “Pen”. Select Pen Tool (P) and draw a shape like one below. Before making the shape, make sure to select “Shape Layers” option from Options bar. Name this shape as "base" and give it a Gradient Overlay of gray shades.

Step 3

Draw another shape using Pen Tool and name it “body”.

Step 4

You need to add some reflections to the body. Create a new layer and Command-click on “body” layer, fill the selection on the new layer with white. Press Ctrl+T and reduce the width of the new layer to 75%. Now go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur ,click OK after making the settings shown below. Finally, reduce opacity of the layer to 50% and give it a Gradient Overlay.

Step 5

Use Rectangle Tool (U) or Pen Tool (P) to make a shape like one below and name it “neck” for convenience. Give it Layer Styles as mentioned.

Step 6

Just like the body of the pen, add reflections to the neck but while doing so, change the opacity of first reflection layer to 75% and that of duplicate layer to 100%, keeping size reduction proportions same.

Step 7

Using Pen Tool (P), make a curved strip as shown.

The strip looks very smooth but actually it has got some aliasing which can create problems in the forthcoming steps. To fix this, right-click on the shape layer and select “Rastersize” from the menu. Now apply these filters to the layer:

Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur (Radius = 0.5 px)
Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen Edges

Next, give the strip these layer styles.

Step 8

Create a new layer (name it “shadow”) and place it below “strip” layer. Command-click on strip layer and go to Select > Modify > Expand, type 2 px and click OK. Now fill the selection with black on the “shadow” layer. Next, apply Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur (Radius = 0.5 px) to the layer.

Continue Reading…

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to make your own realistic, electronic piano in Illustrator. We’ll create quite a few shapes and apply various gradients and blends to make this vector instrument. Even though it’s a bit of work to put all this together, the techniques used in this tutorial are fairly simple. Set aside a couple hours for this one!

Final Image Preview

Want access to the full Vector Source files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Vector Plus for just 9$ a month.

Tutorial Details

• Program: Adobe Illustrator CS4
• Difficulty: Intermediate
• Estimated Completion Time: 2 Hour

Below is the final image we will be working towards.

Step 1

Open a new document with sizes 1654px by 600px. Create a wide rectangle using the Rectangle tool (M). Go to Effect > Stylize > Round Corners and set the Radius at 10px.

Now go to Object > Expand Appearance, then create another rectangle a little bit wider than the first one and position it as shown below. Open the Pathfinder panel and click Minus Front. Fill it with a Linear Gradient.

Step 2

Correct the curves of the upper two points of the rectangle using the Convert Anchor Point Tool as shown.

Step 3

Create a rectangle using the Rectangle Tool (M) and position it as shown. Fill it with a gray color, copy it using Command + C, and paste it by using Command + F. Move it a few pixels up, using the arrow keys on your keyboard and change he fill color to black.

Step 4

Create a rectangle filled with a white color using the Rectangle Tool (M). Position it at the beginning of the black rectangle and go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform. In the open window apply the following settings: for Move set Horizontal to 25px, set the number of copies to 51, leave everything else at the default, and then click OK. Now go to Object > Expand Appearance and fill the keys with a Linear Gradient as shown.

Step 5

Copy the group of electronic pianos keys using Command + C, followed by Command + B to paste in back. Move the duplicate shapes a few pixels down and change the color to gray.

Step 6

Create a rectangle using the Rectangle Tool (M), position it as shown below. Fill it with a linear gradient with colors from white to gray, Stroke color – black and Weight 1pt. Reduce the Opacity to 50%.

With the rectangle still selected, go to Object > Path > Offset Path and set the Offset to -2px, click OK. Change the fill color of the newly created shape to black and set the stroke to none.

Set the Opacity back to 100%, move the shape a little bit up. Now select the rectangle you filled with black and the rectangle you filled with a linear gradient and reduce the Opacity.

Go to Object > Blend > Blend Options and in the new opening window set the Spacing to Specified and Steps to 10. Click OK and straight after that go to Object > Blend > Make.

Step 7

With the blend shape still selected, go to Effect & Distort > Transform & Transform and in the new window inert the following settings: set Horizontal to 48px, Copies to 1, and click OK. Go to Object > Expand Appearance.

Step 8

Now select the second black key from the group and go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform, and in the window enter the following settings: Horizontal of 30px, Copies at 1, and click OK. Then go to Object > Expand Appearance. Now select the third key and go to Effect > Transform > Transform and in the new opening window do the following settings: Horizontal: 45px, Copies: 1, click Ok.

Go to Object > Expand Appearance. Now select the fourth key and again go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform and in the window enter the following settings: Horizontal of 28px, Copies at 1, and click OK. Then go to Object > Expand Appearance. Now select the fifth key and again go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform and in the new window enter the following settings: Horizontal of 28px, Copies at 1, and click OK, then go to Object > Expand Appearance.

Step 9

Now select the last five keys of the electronic piano and go to Object > Transform > Move and in the enter the following settings: Horizontal of 175px and click the Copy button, repeat this until you get the required result. To do this you can use the keys combination Command + D, take a look at the picture below to get a better idea.

Step 10

Create a rectangle using the Rectangle Tool (M) like the one shown below. Then fill it with a gray to dark gray linear gradient.

Continue Learning…

Livebrush is a new and innovative drawing program. It’s not a full vector application like Illustrator®, nor does it have the myriad features of Painter® or Photoshop®. Livebrush creates graphics with a simple stroke of a “motion-enabled” brush, which means it responds to your mouse’s movement to modify the line and apply different styles. That’s the “live” part — no two strokes are the same, and each can have infinite variations. This unique brush is what makes Livebrush fun — and addictive.

Downloading Livebrush

Livebrush is better understood once you jump right in and try it. It’s a free download and will run on most modern computers and operating systems. Livebrush is an Adobe AIR application. It’s not made by Adobe, but rather runs in Adobe’s AIR framework. When you install Livebrush, AIR will be installed as well (if you don’t already have it).

The Interface

When you first open Livebrush, a new “project” is started by default. The Livebrush interface contains six basic elements: The “paper,” or drawing area, the Project Bar and Tool Bar, plus three panels: Styles, Tool Settings and Layers.

Drawing

Let’s get right to the fun part — drawing. Make sure the Brush tool is selected, then choose a style from the pre-sets in the Styles panel. Here, I’ve used the Floral Basic style. Paint a line with the brush to get a feel of it.

As you can see, Livebrush adds a new layer in the Layers panel for each stroke. These layers can be turned off and/or deleted. You can also change the color of the locked background layer by clicking on the swatch at the top right corner of the panel.

Tool Settings

Take a look at the Tool Settings panel. Under the Behavior tab, there are settings for Velocity and Friction. These are the two basic settings which determine the behavior of the live brush

Velocity: Adjust this slider to set the “speed” of the brush when drawing. A higher setting will let the brush keep moving after you’ve stopped drawing.

Friction: Sets the “resistance” of the brush. A higher setting slows the brush while drawing. With no friction at all, the brush would keep moving indefinitely. Try different combinations of velocity and friction to see how they interact.

Mouse Up Complete: When checked, the brush will stop immediately (regardless of the velocity or friction settings) when you release the mouse click.

To get a sense of how each brush will behave, you can click the Preview icon (an eyeball) at the bottom of the Styles panel. Click through the styles to see a demonstration of each. You can change the color of the preview background, by clicking on the swatches menu in the upper left corner, or you can just delete it.

While in preview mode, you can change the settings of each style and get live, updated previews. You could spend all day doing this! For example, preview a simple smooth brush, then as it’s previewing, change the color, the opacity, the line type, etc.,

Decos

You’ll notice that some brushes add swirls, leaves or other flourishes to the line as you draw. These are called decorations, or “decos,” for short. The decos are not part of the line, but are small graphic files that are added to it, based on the settings of the given style. Decos can be GIF, JPG, PNG or SWF files.

Continue Learning…

This post is a collection of latest community news submitted on tripwire magazine by readers and other blog owners.  Most new posts in the web design and development community is included making this regular post a really fast and easy consumable overview of what is going on just now.  You can find more community news here

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continue reading…

In this tutorial I’ll show you how to draw a sword in Illustrator, using the Rectangle Tool, gradients, and other Illustrator tools. Actually the tutorial isn’t very hard, let’s see the final result that is our goal first!

Final Image Preview

Below is the final image we will be working towards. Want access to the full Vector Source files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Vector Plus for just 9$ a month.

Tutorial Details

• Program: Adobe Illustrator CS4
• Difficulty: Intermediate
• Estimated Completion Time: 1.5 – 2 hours

Here is the illustration we’ll be creating.

Step 1

Open a new document, pick the Rectangle Tool (M), create a rectangle like the one shown below, and fill it with a linear gradient with colors from R=213, G=237, B=254 to R=142, G=158, B=171.

Step 2

Now pick the Add Anchor Point Tool (+) and add two points in the bottom part of the rectangle. Now use the Convert Anchor Point Tool (Shift + C) to edit the two key points that you added, as showed below. Select the bottom two points and go to Object > Path > Average (Alt + Command + J) and in the new open window turn on Both, and click OK.

Step 3

Pick the Rectangle tool (M), create a rectangle in the bottom part of the first rectangle as shown.

Step 4

With the rectangle you created earlier selected, pick the Add Anchor Point Tool (+), add two points in the positions as shown and edit them as indicated below. Fill them with the same gradient from Step 2, open the Pathfinder panel and click on Add to Shape Area.

Step 5

Now copy the newly created shape from Step 4 using Command + C followed by Command + F to paste in front. Decrease the copy’s size from the right and the left side. To do this, pick the Selection Tool (V), click on one of the side points, then press and hold the Alt key and slide it a little bit inwards.

Step 6

With the shape whose size you just decreased still selected, pick the Direct Selection Tool (A) and delete the points on the right side. To do this, click on the point which has to be removed and press the Delete key. Then pick the Pen Tool (P), click on the top point in the top part in the middle, and then on the point at the bottom, and fill with a Linear Gradient.

Add three more Gradient sliders, for the first one from left to right select this color: R=30, G=73, B=123, for the second one R=54, G=102, B=162, for the third one R=0, G=97, B=148, for the fourth one R=91, G=127, B=173 and for the last fifth slider R=124, G=156, B=189.

Step 7

Copy the shape you filled with a linear gradient and apply Command + C followed by Command + F, flip it horizontally, and then fill it with the color R=100, G=136, B=168.

Step 8

Now copy the shape you filled with a linear gradient using Command + C followed by Command + F. Now turn off the fill color, delete the top-right point of the shape using the Direct Selection Tool (A), and apply a white Stroke with a weight of 1pt.

Step 9

Copy the shape you created in Step 4 using Command + C followed by Command + F. Remove the top points of the copy using the Direct Selection Tool (A), also remove the right point. Use the Add Anchor Point Tool (+) to add one point as shown below, then using the Direct Selection tool (A) edit the top key point as indicated. Now use the Pen Tool (P) to close the path like we did in the previous steps. Fill with color R=121, G=134, B=158 and reduce the Opacity to 70%.

Step 10

Copy the last shape you created using Command + C followed by Command + F, flip it horizontally, change the Fill color to white and reduce the Opacity to 50%.

Step 11

Copy the shape from Step 4 once more using Command + C followed by Command + F. Now we need to move the shape on top of all the other shapes. With the copy still selected, go to Object > Arrange > Bring to Front.

Step 12

As the shape is still selected, pick the Direct Selection Tool (A) and this time delete the bottom points of the shape and fill with a linear gradient as shown.

Step 13

Create a rectangle using the Rectangle Tool (M) on top of all the other shapes and position as shown, then fill it with a linear gradient. To do this, open the Gradient panel and select Type: Linear. You need 3 Stop color sliders all together. For the first one from left to right select color R=84, G=110, B=114, for the second one R=12, G=20, B=39, for the third one R=21, G=27, B=48 and reduce the Opacity to 75%.

Step 14

Copy the shape from Step 4 using Command + C followed by Command + F. And now we need to move it on top of all the other shapes. To do this, go to Object > Arrange > Bring to Front.

 

Continue Learning…

Posters are an integral part of Media. An eye-catching, attractive poster conveys a professional, compelling message about a product, service or event.,Creating posters can be a lot of fun with a large canvas area , there is plenty of room for creativity .

In this article, i have collected a mixture of Photoshop and Illustrator tutorials related to posters and advertisements. which will help you in learning new skills and methods as well, while they teach you to design some cool & Attractive posters

1. ) Retro Boxing Poster

2. ) Old Collage Effect Poster

3. ) Century Vaudeville Poster

4. ) Furious Pink Panther Poster

5. ) Event Poster

6. ) Awesome Colorful Posters

7. ) Sin City Style Poster

8. ) Constructivist Inspired Poster

9. ) Awesome Music Poster

10. ) 60s Psychedelic Style Concert Poster

11. ) Grid While Making a Typographic Poster

12. ) Indiana Jones

13. ) Neo Constructivist Poster

14. ) Nopattern Jumper Effect

15. ) Gigposter Design

16. ) Digitalartsonline

17. ) An Explosive Cover

18. ) A Mock Retro Poster

19. ) Quick Grungy Poster

20. ) High Impact Gig Poster

21. ) An Ice Cold Poster

22. ) Digitalartsonline

23. ) Constructivist Propaganda Poster

24. ) Comic Book Photo Effect

25. ) Retro Grunge Poster

26. ) Inspirational Vector Political Poster

27. ) Super Cool Retro Poster

28. ) Composing An Event Poster

29. ) An Intense Movie Poster

30. ) Awesome Snowboard Poster

In this tutorial we are going to create 3D text and integrate it in a natural environment. We will not use any 3D programs, so all you need is Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to create this effect.

Final Image Preview

Take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below.

Tutorial Details

• Programs: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop
• Difficulty: Intermediate

Step 1

We are going to open up Adobe Illustrator, (using CMYK as your color settings) to start creating our 3D text.

Type out the word “Escape”, (I am using the font Impact) and change the color to blue (#1A98BB). This color will be easier to work with, and it will roughly be the color we will be using in our final outcome.

Step 2

Typically, we would use the Extrude & Bevel Tool to create a 3D version of our text, but since Illustrator can’t really handle what we want to do, we are going to create it ourselves. (Shown below is what we would get if we used the Bevel & Extrude tool)

Click on your text, and go to Type > Create Outlines. Now copy the text with Command + C and Paste In Place with Command + F. Darken the text using the black slider in your Color window.

Now we are going to shrink the text down and keep it in the same spot at the same time. To do this we are going to click on our dark text and hold down Alt and Shift, then bring one of the corners of the box in.

Step 3

Highlight all of the letters, open up your Pathfinder (Shift + F9). In the Window drop down menu, (if you don’t already have it open) and click the Add to Shape Area icon. Click Expand. This will make the two "Escape" words into one shape.

Step 4

Click on the Pen Tool (P) and where there were corners and now "L" shaped areas, click on the corner anchor to delete it.

Step 5

After you get rid of all the "L" areas you can do Command + F, this should bring back your original text. Once you do that, you may notice that some of the rounded edges don’t look right. To fix these rounded edges, you can delete the original text we just pasted, click on the Pen Tool (P) and delete the points on the curve until you get an angle that looks right.

Step 6

Now we are ready to bring our text into Photoshop. Create a new document (Command + N). We are going to treat this as a cover design, so we are going to change our settings to 8 inches wide by 10 inches tall and the color setting of CMYK. We will change our resolution to 300 dpi, so it will be print quality. Once we open our document we want to Click and Drag guides a half-inch from each edge (using our ruler—Command + R). This will work as our bleed.

Step 7

Go to stock.xchng to get the image we are going to use for our background. Open up the image in Photoshop, we are going to adjust it a little to suit our purposes.

Step 8

Go to Image > Adjustment > Replace Color. Click on the part of the grass area that is the most yellow and use the Hue to adjust it so it has more of a green look. You can also drop down the Saturation to give it more of a realistic look.

Step 9

Drag our photo into the Photoshop document we made, and resize the photo to fit in the area with the Transform Tool (Command + T).

Step 10

For the background, we are going for a more desaturated look, so we are going to open up our Hue/Saturation with Command + U and drop down the saturation to -20.

Step 11

Now we can bring in our text. We are going to bring in the face of the text first, and then the 3D part, so that we can work with each one individually. So Copy and Paste (Command + C, Command + V) each one into our Photoshop document. If you don’t resize the text or zoom in/zoom out of the document at all, both of the text layers should line up perfectly.

Step 12

Now that you have the text and background image in place where you want them, we can start adding in the grass.

Let’s start off by creating a new folder (clicking on the folder icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette), we’ll call it "grass", then create a new layer within the folder.

Using the Square Marquee Tool (M), Click and Drag a box around the bottom half of the document, below the photo (make sure there is no white gap in between the photo and the box) so that the photo isn’t selected. Now click on the foreground color and click on the grass in the photo until you find a dark green. Fill the Marquee box we made with that color.

Step 13

Click on the Brush Tool (B) and change the brush to the generic one-blade grass brush that comes with Photoshop. Now click on the Foreground color and then click on the grass on the background photo. Do the same with the Background-color. This should give you two different but similar greens.

Using F5, open up the brush settings and adjust the Hue Jitter, in the Color Dynamics tab to 20%.

Step 14

Create a new layer (Command + Shift + N) in the grass folder, and start painting from where the background photo ends with a 125px brush. As you move towards the bottom of the document make the brush larger ( ] ), so you end up with about a 200px brush when you get to the bottom. This should be quick so that it leaves holes for the future layers to cover up.

We are going to make this color a little bit darker because this will be under another layer. So go in to the Curves (Command + M) and adjust the Input to 47 and the Output to 55.

Step 15

We are going to repeat step 14, except this time we are going to fill in most of the rest of the holes that we missed the first time around. We don’t need to adjust the Curves on this grass layer.

Step 16

Create a new layer (Command + Shift + N) in the grass folder. Now to add some highlights to the grass we are going to use our grass Brush (B) with the same color and paint in just a few areas. Go into the Curves again (Command + M) and adjust the input to 58 and the output to 39.

Step 17

We are going to create a new layer (Command + Shift + N), above the lettering, so we can paint on some grass so it looks like it is going in front of the letters.

After you paint the grass in front of the letters create a new layer (Command + Shift + N) and do a light pass of grass, we are going to darken this layer with the Curves (Command + M), adjust the input to 42 and the output to 56.

Step 18

Now that we have our grass finished, we are going to start working on our lettering.

Create a new folder called "text face" and a new folder called "text shadow" put the text face and the text shadow in the corresponding folders.

Now we are going to Command + Click on the text face layer to create a marquee outline around it, create a new layer in the "text face" folder with Command + Shift + N and fill it (Command + Delete) with #EDE6DA.

Icons can come in incredibly handy for both web and print design. They are a great and very simple way to add graphics to text areas, overall making it a much easier and better experience for the user.

There are a lot of icon tutorials on the web that are specifically for Adobe Illustrator, mainly because its vector image capabilities allow you to scale your finished icon up and down to the size of a pin-head or the muscles of the Incredible Hulk. However, if you know what the purpose for your icon is going to be (i.e. you know you’re not going to want it any bigger than, lets say, 128×128px) designing it in Photoshop is not a problem, in fact, in some cases, it’s a lot easier! Therefore in this article I have collected 31 magnificent icon tutorials specifically for those who know the purpose of their icons, only have Photoshop to work with or are simply more confident and skilled in Photoshop. Enjoy!

1. USB Hard Drive Device Icon

Difficulty: Intermediate
Skills: Use Gradient and Shadows to add depth to otherwise very simple shapes.

2. How to Design Mini Icons

Difficulty: Easy
Skills: Use the Pencil Tool to make simple custom shapes.

3. Skype Icon Design

Difficulty: Intermediate
Skills: Use different Blending Modes to add highlights and shadows to certain areas.

4. Create a 32×32px Social Media Icon

Difficulty: Easy
Skills: Use the Modify > Contract Tool to create pixel-perfect highlights.

5. How to Create a Basic House Icon

Difficulty: Intermediate
Skills: Use plenty of Layer Styles such as Gradients and Shadows to give your icon a 3D appearance.

6. Vintage Mac Icon

Difficulty: Easy
Skills: Use Layer Styles such as Glows and Satins to give your screen a glossy effect.

7. Leather Textured, Realistic Briefcase Icon

Difficulty: Advanced
Skills: Use Blending Modes and Levels to blend a texture into your icon.

8. Unique and Funny Digg Icon in a Bottle

Difficulty: Intermediate
Skills: Use Gradients to make realistic blends and shadows to make your bottle appear 3D.

9. Postal Packet Logo Icon

Difficulty: Easy
Skills: Use the Polygonal Lasso Tool to create simple out of proportion but funky shapes.

10. Vintage Radio Icon

Difficulty: Advanced
Skills: Use textures and patterns to create a photo-quality and life-like icon.

11. Detailed Compass Icon

Difficulty: Advanced
Skills: Use the Free Transform Tool to edit and combine simple shapes to make them appear three-demensional.

12. Animated RSS Feed Icon

Difficulty: Intermediate
Skills: Use Photoshop’s built-in animation tool to animated your RSS Feed Icon.

13. Traffic Cone Icon

Difficulty: Advanced
Skills: Use the Pen Tool to create custom shapes and edit them with the Direct Selection Tool.

14. RSS Icon

Difficulty: Easy
Skills: Use the Pen Tool to create curvy lines to add depth and interest to your icon.

15. XP Style Monitor Icon

Difficulty: Intermediate
Skills: Use the Distort Tool to change the overall dimension and angle of your icon, making it appear 3D.

16. Hand-Drawn Social Media Icons

Difficulty: Easy
Skills: Use the Hue/Saturation Tool to add color to your hand-drawn elements.

17. Glossy RSS Icon

Difficulty: Intermediate
Skills: Use the Direct Selection Tool to reshape simple shapes such as circles.

18. Shiny Lock Icon

Difficulty: Intermediate
Skills: Use the Path and Direct Selection Tools to modify shapes and make them pixel perfect.

19. Watercolor Social Networking Icons

Difficulty: Easy
Skills: Use the Brush Tool to create “hand-drawn” like elements.

Continue Learning…

Handle color changes and variations with ease by following this intermediate level tutorial. This is a special tutorial sponsored by Astute Graphics that incorporates the use of their high-quality Phantasm CS range Illustrator Pugins. We’ll work with Phantasm’s color shifting tools: Hue/Saturation and and Shift to Color, while we learn to contrast shapes when composing natural, vector scenes!

Final Image Preview

Want access to the full Vector Source files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Vector Plus for just 9$ a month.

Tutorial Details

• Program: Adobe Illustrator CS4 and Phantasm CS range (Designer, Studio or Publisher) Plugin
• Difficulty: Intermediate
• Estimated Completion Time: 1 Hour

Here is the illustration I’ll be creating. Click here to see the larger version. And keep in mind, while I’m using Phantasm CS Studio in this tutorial, the options we’ll be covering are available in any version of Phantasm CS.

Step 1

Using the Pen Tool (P), draw straight lines to create the basic shape of a tree.

Step 2

Draw other tree shapes that are even more simplified and varied.

Step 3

An important concept to keep in mind when creating the first dominant shapes in your illustration is that these shapes will create the foundation and overall flow for the illustration. So, pay attention that the layout is looking good from the start.

Step 4

I can make branches that extend from the trees using triangles. To make a triangle select the Star Tool (found under the Rectangle Tool). With the Star Tool selected, click and hold down on your artboard, then press the down arrow until your shape has three points. In addition, and after your shape has three points, you can press and hold the Shift key to make the triangle sit perfectly flat. Release the mouse then release the keystroke you’re holding.

Step 5

Using the Selection Tool (V) squish the triangle so it’s much pointier. Place the triangles throughout the trees sparingly.

Step 6

We’ll now use the Ellipse Tool (L) to create the leaves on the trees. Start with a simple circle.

Step 7

Grab the Convert Anchor Point Tool (Shift + C), then click the top and bottom points that make up the circle. This will immediately convert them into angles. After that, use the Selection Tool to squish the shape into that of a leaf.

Step 8

Place the leaves throughout the trees and on the branches.

Step 9

I’ll use the Polygon Tool to make the foundation of the flowers. Using the same technique that I used for creating the triangle, this time pressing the up key to give my polygon more sides.

Step 10

Select the polygon and go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Pucker & Bloat. Give the shape a Bloat of about 20.

Step 11

Place the flowers throughout the trees.

Step 12

I’ll add a little more interest to the trees by giving them some subtle texture. I use a series of triangles to accomplish this. I adjust their transparency so they don’t stand out too much.

Step 13

Now that I have a bit of the foreground in place I can move on to adding some background elements to get a better idea of the landscape. Using the Pen Tool, draw a pleasing curved shape that will become the mountains.

Be patient and ensure you have a visually pleasing flow for the mountains. The curve of the mountains contrasted by the very angular shape of the trees complement each other. This complementary effect is in play throughout the entire illustration.

Step 14

Finish drawing the shape of the mountain.

Step 15

Give the mountain a tenuous blue to bluish-green gradient.

Step 16

There is no real process for creating the background elements. My shapes are more random than calculated. As long as you’re maintaining a nice harmony and flow for the elements then you’re good to go.

Step 17

Add a blue box to the background to create the sky and send it to the back by going to Object > Transform > Send to Back.

Step 18

The shrubs have been created using the base shape of the flower. To create a slight sense of volume, copy and paste the shape on top of itself. Scale the shape down slightly, set the Transparency to Multiply and bring the Opacity down to approximately 45.

TIP: Copy the shape and press Command +F to paste it directly on top of where it was copied from.

Continue Learning…

We have another Psd Plus tutorial exclusively available to Plus members today. If you want to take your 3D poster skills to the next level, then we have an awesome retro tutorial for you. Learn how to make and put to use Stereoscopic 3D images in Photoshop. Learn more at the jump!

This Plus Tutorial is Filled with Creative Tips

Before the advent of computers, the movie industry relied on stop-frame or stop-motion animation to bring their monsters to life; special effect artists such as Ray Harryhausen used this technique on classics such as “One Million Years BC” and “The Valley of Gwangi“. The 1950s also witnessed a 3D movie explosion — and Hollywood’s recent 3D revival means moviegoers of today can experience the next generation of 3D technology.

In this tutorial, we’ll take inspiration from these movies of yesteryear and recreate a retro B-movie styled poster. I’ll walk you through entire creation process, step-by-step using photography and 3D renders. Then we’ll take a jump into the third-dimension — by adding effects only visible when viewed through anaglyph 3D glasses. So hold onto your seats, because stunning sights really will leap at you in 3D — just as the poster says!

Tutorial Details

• Program: Adobe Photoshop CS3 or later
• Difficulty: Advanced
• Estimated Completion Time: 6 hours

A preview of the final image is below.

Professional and Detailed Instructions Inside

Plus members can Log in and Download! Otherwise, Join Now! Below are some sample images from this tutorial.

PSD Plus Membership

As you know, we run a premium membership system here called ‘Plus’ that costs $9 a month (or $22 for 3 months!) which gives members access to the Source files for tutorials as well as periodic extra tutorials, like this one! You’ll also get access to Net Plus and Vector Plus, too. If you’re a Plus member, you can log in and download the tutorial. If you’re not a member, you can of course join today!