Magazine Mock

I choose to make a mock magazine of the company Valve and their current video game Half-Life 3. It has been confirmed and is being developed after six years from its predecessor was released Half-Life 2. I found this website that gave me my headline and then use various characters from the video game series. Then it was on to the typography, I found out that Valve uses common fonts for their games which made it much easier. I used Trebuchet MS and a font I had to download to get the Lambda. I last thing I did was make the title of the magazine look like it was behind Gordon Freeman, and there you have it.

Amazing Brushes

EXPLORE THE BRUSH TOOLS

1. Create a new photoshop document of height: 200px Width: 400px. 
2. Make your main colour on your pallete black and fill background layer.
3. Create a new layer over that.
4. Go to brushes and make sure it is on airbrush (has soft edges). Change the pen weight to 9.
5. Paint a single dot towards the left of the image. 
6. Go to Filter > Stylise > Wind.
7. Repeat this five times times, or press [CTRL F] five times.
8. Go to Filter > Blur > Motion blur. Set Angle to 0 and Distance to 25 pixels.
9. Press Edit > Free Transform or CTRL T and rotate so that the rain drop is about 70 degrees to the ground plane.
10. Press Ctrl + I to inverse the image. 
11. Press Ctrl + A to select the entire image.
11. Go to Edit > Define Brush Preset.
12. You now have a raindrop brush.

Adding an effect to the background

Now go back to the image. We need to prepare the background and either make it blurred or give it a light texture. For this particular picture, we will make a very simple rain effect. 

1. Make a new layer above the picture.
2. Go to Filter > Render > Clouds.
3. Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise.
4. Go to Filter > Blur > Motion blur.
5. Turn the blend mode to 'vivid light'.
6. Take the opacity down to 30%.

Now we add the rain onto the image.

1. Go to the Brush Tool and look for the rain brush you created before in the Brush Palette.
2. Select Shape Dynamics in the Brush Palette. 
3. First lets begin with the midground rain. 
Under the Brush Presets Tab, change the master diametre of the brush to 90.
In the Shape Dynamics tab, change the Size Jitter to 50% and Angle Jitter to 1%
In the Scattering tab, change the Scatter: 1000%
Brush all of that on as desired.
Then turn the layer opacity to 50.
6. Next is the foreground rain. Change the master diametre of the brush to 180-250.
Size Jitter: 100%
Angle Jitter: 1%
Scatter: 1000%
Brush that on as desired.

And there you have it!

Healing and Repairing Photos

Techniques

• Clone Stamp Tool - fixing small scratches and creases 
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• The shot’s faded tones are very flat. To boost contrast, choose Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels. Click OK. Drag the black input level slider to the right to a value of 29. This darkens the shot’s faded grey shadows. Drag the white input levels slider to the left to a value of 215. This brightens the shot’s weak highlights. Drag the grey slider left to 1.24 to lighten the midtones. The shot now has more contrast. 
• 
  
• Convert to a smart object. Choose Filter>Convert for Smart Filters. Click OK. This turns the layer into a Smart Object, enabling you to fine-tune filter settings at a later date. Choose Filter>Noise>Dust & Scratches. Set Radius to 20 and Threshold to 15. 
• 
  
• In the Layers Panel, click on the white Smart Filter layer and press Cmd/Ctrl+I to invert it. 
• 
  
• Now grab the Brush tool from the Toolbox. Choose a soft round tip from the Brush Preset picker. Set the Toolbox’s foreground color swatch to white. Click on the black Smart Filter to target it. Spray 
white over the background’s black dust spots, fingerprints and thinnest white scratches to fill them in. 
• 
  
• Grab the Patch tool. In the Options Bar, choose Content-Aware. Set Adaptation to Very Strict. Tick Sample All Layers. Click on transparent ‘Layer 1’. Draw a patch around sections of scratches.

Sources

http://tv.adobe.com/

http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2013/01/18/restore-old-photos-how-to-rescue-vintage-prints-and-family-pictures/

Lynda.com

Collage

Here is all fifty photos used in this collage

Slide Show Design

Flickr Slide Show

In my second assessment, I was asked to use my own pictures and share them on a free photo hosting site. I went with Flickr.com and I enjoy how it turned out. Here are the results.

Avatar Image

Alien Transformation

In our first assessment, we were asked to create an avatar from the movie "Avatar" by James Cameron or something using the same tools that were used to create that affect. I went with an alien transformation. Here is what I came up with. Below the image is a tutorial of how I got to this result.

Grab the Eraser Tool (E) and erase the eyes. Now use the Clone Stamp Tool (S) to clone parts of the cheeks over the nose. It'll look like the nose is erased. Use the Healing Stamp Tool to fix any not natural looking parts on the place where the nose first was.

Go to Filter > Liquify Tool (Shift+Ctrl+X) and a new window will show. Use the Forward Warp Tool (W) in this window to stretch out the empty place where the eyes first were. I used a brush with a size of approximately 30 pixels. Stretch it until it has the shape of an alien eye. Press OK to accept the changes.

I used some alien eyes that I created before (Source file) and pasted them in the layer behind the face. Scale the eye using Transform (Ctrl+T) until it's at a right size. Use the Burn Tool (O) to make the areas around the eyes a little bit darker so it will look more realistic.

Get ready to change some colors using Color Balance (Ctrl+B). Play around with the Color Balance and Tone Balance until you think you have something alien-like.

I used these settings: shadows: 0,20,0; midtones: 0,20,0; highlights: 0,40,0.

Grunge your face. On a new layer, cover the face with a grunge pattern using Transform (Ctrl+T). Set the Blending Mode of the grunge layer to Color Burn and the Opacity around 25%.

Mask the face. In the grunge layer that was just created, add a black mask by (Alt+click) on add vector mask. Grab the paint brush with the color white and simply brush around the face to reveal the grunge pattern that was just applied.

Draw facial lines on a new layer using the Brush Tool (B). These lines can be used for detail. Select the lines on the layer and go to Blending Options. In this new window, go to Bevel and Emboss. Use the standard settings but change: Style: Pillow Emboss.

I used these values: depth: 51%; size: 1px; soften: 1px.

When satisfied, press OK to save the settings. Grab your Burn Tool (O) and burn the lines so that it'll look more realistic.

Adjust the levels of the image by opening the Levels panel (Ctrl+L). Change the levels of the image until you have a nice, realistic looking face.