Tag Archives: phsh effect series

Tear Drops (PHSH Effect #28)

Loading

Technically, this Photoshop effect isn’t strictly for making tear drops, you can use it to create any other clear liquid drops – sweat, condensation, big rain drops, etc. But since I first learned this technique because I needed to make a tear drop – for the creation of my 6th book cover, Broken – that’s the name I’m sticking with.

Like most of the other effects I show you, there’s multiple ways you can create tear drops in Photoshop, and again, like most of the other effects, it’s not nearly as hard as it may seem.

Step 1

As always, you’ll need to start with an image you’d like to add the effect on. Since I’m going to be showing you this for a tear drop – and since I already had the picture on hand – I’m going to be using the same sad girl face I used on my book cover.

Feel free to use the picture above, or you can choose your own sad person, or water bottle, or forehead if you’re going to be creating sweat or condensation. Though I will say, it might be easier to follow along with the tutorial in the same way first. Just so that you have the steps down before you start deviating from the tutorial. I’ll add example pictures of condensation and sweat at the end of the tutorial, so you can see what it looks like on those images, too.

Okay, so once you have the picture you want to add the effect to, we’re going to make a New Layer, and then on that New Layer, use the Pen Tool to draw a shape. Preferably, a tear/water drop shape. (Or as close as you can get) If you’d like, you can also rename this layer to something simple yet identifying, like Pen Tear Drop.

If you’ve never used the Pen Tool before, the way to use it is by clicking multiple times, which are called Anchor Points, to create the shape you want. It’s similar to the Polygonal Lasso Tool (which I showed you in this tutorial), except the line doesn’t hold until you create the next Anchor Point.

Each one of those squares are the Anchor Points where I clicked. If you don’t use multiple Anchor Points to create your shape, you won’t end up with a shape, but you’ll instead just have a dot. Or if you click once to ‘start’ the tool and once to ‘stop’, you’ll get a line.

For example:

So you’ll want to make sure to use the Anchor Points to create the shape, otherwise the Pen Tool won’t appear to work. If you need to, you can also zoom in on your picture to make creating the shape easier. To zoom in, use the CTRL and + buttons on your keyboard. (Zooming out is CTRL – , makes sense, right? Clicking ‘+’ brings you more/closer and ‘-’ minuses/moves you farther away)

 

Step 2

Once you have a shape you’re happy with, you’re going to right-click on the shape and then select Make Selection from the drop-down Menu that appears.

In the Make Selection Dialogue box that appears, you shouldn’t need to change anything from the default, but this might depend on your version of Photoshop, so I’ll list what the values should be below. Once you finish changing them, or if you didn’t need to change them at all, just click the Okay button.

Feather Radius: 0 pixels

Anti-Aliased Check Box should be Check-marked

New Selection for Operation (in my version of PHSH, the other options are greyed out)

After you click the Okay button, you should notice that the shape you drew is now now shows the dotted selection lines, instead of the Anchor Point square dots.

Once you finish that, you’ll want to Fill the shape with white. To do this, you can use the CTRL + Delete buttons on your keyboard, or if you switch from the Pen Tool to the Selection tool and then right-click on the shape, select Fill from the drop-down menu, and then pick White from those options.

If you noticed my Layers panel has an extra layer, this is because I created 2 tear drop shapes. The first one I forgot to fill with white, and then wondered why Step 3 wasn’t working. I had to go back and re-draw the tear, so it will be a different shape for the rest of the tutorial. Also see? Even us pros mess up!

Once your shape is filler with White, you can now Deselect it (right-click using the Pen or Selection tool and choose Deselect) to get rid of the dotted outline. After this, go on over to the Layers Panel and change the Fill to 0%. You can either do this by sliding the slider all the way to the left, or simply type the number 0 into the box.

 

Step 3

Next, you’re going to right-click on the Tear Drop layer and bring up the Blending Options Dialogue Box. From there, you’re going to check-mark the Bevel and Emboss option, and then change the following values:

Bevel and Emboss:

Inner Bevel

Smooth

Depth: 530

Direction: Up

Size: 50

Soften: 0

Angle: -90,

Altitude: 0

Highlight Mode: Screen (White)

Opacity: 50%

Shadow Mode: Multiply

Opacity: 75%

After you change the Bevel and Emboss values, you’ll also want to add an Inner Shadow, with the following values:

Inner Shadow:

Linear Burn (Leave Black)

Opacity: 30%

Angle: -63 (Uncheck Global Light)

Distance: 4

Choke: 0

Size: 16

And finally, a Drop Shadow, with the following values:

Drop Shadow:

Multiply (Leave Black)

Opacity: 55%

Angle: 127

Distance: 7

Spread: 0

Size: 8

At this stage, your tear should actually look like a tear. If however, you’re in the same boat as I am and it’s not looking even remotely close, don’t panic!

I discovered through creating yet another tear (yes, I ended up making 3 for this tutorial) that you need to do the steps not only in order, but without breaking between them, especially between making the selection, filling with white and first applying the Bevel and Emboss effect.

I have no idea why, but for some reason, the Bevel and Emboss effect just won’t look the same if you take breaks between those steps. I know it makes no sense, but sometimes Photoshop is just… let’s say finicky.

My 2nd tear drop ended up looking badly because to make these tutorials, I’m writing the steps while I’m also doing the effect in Photoshop. This is not only in case I need to make any tweaks to the steps I already have written, but also so I can get the screenshots used in the tutorial.

Unfortunately this breaking up of the steps seems to make the Bevel and Emboss effect act weird, so I had to make another tear and do the first steps up to the Bevel and Emboss values a second time.

I’ll admit it you can’t tell that the shape looks better in that picture, but you can clearly see the difference between the third tear and the second one at the same stage.

After seeing the Bevel and Emboss wasn’t acting wonky, I went ahead and applied the Inner Shadow and Drop Shadow.

I noticed however that while this third tear was looking closer, it still wasn’t quite as accurate as I thought I could make it, so I also changed the values for the effects to the following:

Bevel and Emboss:

Style: Inner Bevel

Technique: Smooth

Direction: Down

Depth: 530

Size: 10

Soften: 0

Angle: -124 (Uncheck Use Global Light box)

Altitude: 0

Highlight Mode: Screen (White)

Opactiy: 68%

Shadow Mode: Mulitple (Dark Grey #373737)

Opacity: 75%

 

Inner Shadow:

Blend Mode: Linear Burn (Lighter Grey #525252)

Opacity: 30%

Angle: -145 (Make sure Use Global Light is un-checked)

Distance: 4

Choke: 0

Size: 8

 

Drop Shadow:

Blend Mode: Multiple (Dark Grey #1e1e1e)

Opacity: 55%

Angle: 127

Distance: 4

Spread: 0

Size: 3

If your tear isn’t looking quite like a tear, try these second set of values to see if that helps. A lot of the time in Photoshop, trial and error is the only way to get an effect to look right. This is because of a lot of different factors, but the main one will be the image you’re applying the affect to. If you’re not using the same picture I am the colours, lighting, shadows, etc. are all going to be different, so the values you choose to create your effect will vary.

This is why I always recommend playing around with values, to see if you can find different ones than what I use to get the effect to work on your image.

 

Step 4

Yes, there’s still another step to the tear process! However, these last two steps are completely optional. This step, which involves warping your tear shape to make it look more realistic really only needs to happen if you didn’t draw the shape exactly how you wanted it to look the first time around.

If you’re already happy with the shape of your tear, feel free to skip ahead to Step 5!

If you’d like to try changing the shape of your tear, follow along. This is called Warping, which I may have talked about before, but off the top of my head I don’t remember, so I’ll just explain it again.

To Warp your shape, right-click on the shape and then select Warp from the drop-down menu that appears. If the first time you right-click the only options that come up say the current layer name (in my case, Tear 3) and Layer 1, you’ll first need to click on one of the squares that’s outlining the shape. (The ones you’d use if we were going to resize it)

After clicking the resize square, then right-clicking should bring up the drop-down with the Warp option.

You should notice after selecting Warp that a box/grid shows up over your tear, with little circles at certain points around it. These circles are the points you’ll use to warp the image.

I’d suggest starting out small, because over-warping could ruin all your hard work. Try at first if you can, to just slightly warp the tear so it looks like it’s moving over the bottom of the eyelid. This should mean slightly adding a curve to the top part of the tear.

Once you’re happy with your warped tear, click Apply in the dialogue box, or the Enter button on your keyboard to keep the changes.

 

Step 5

The final step (aside from saving) is to add a highlight to your tear. This is also an optional step, since the Bevel and Emboss effect should’ve added at least a slight highlight to your tear. But if you want to add another one, here’s how:

You’re going to make a New Layer and can rename it something identifiable (I called mine Highlight). Then, use your Pen Tool to draw another shape. This one should be smaller than your tear, and a skinny, almost banana shape. Once you’re happy with the shape, the process is the same: Right-click to Make Selection and then CTRL + Delete to make it white.

After this, you can change it’s Opacity so it’s not as stark white, or rotate it if you didn’t draw it exactly the same bend as the tear.

Once you’re done fiddling with the highlight, or if you didn’t think you needed one, go ahead and zoom out and take a look at your masterpiece!

If you’re happy with how it looks zoomed out, the only step left to do is save your file! Don’t forget to save both a .psd (Photoshop) file and a picture (.jpeg, .png, etc.) file so that you have a work file, just in case you need to come back to it. (Or to remember how you created the effect)


Like this tutorial? Check out the rest of the series here!

Shattered Text (PHSH Effect #17)

Loading

Welcome to the last Photoshop tutorial for the year!

I know there haven’t been too many this year, but that’s for two very good reasons! 1) I’ve expanded the website to include different things, and thus am trying to be fair in my cycling through of each interest, and b) I’ve been busy and need time to learn more effects to show you!

At the time of writing (20.11.17), I’m almost out of effects to share, and haven’t had time to learn more. I mean, it’s 2020, can you really blame me for not having time? But, don’t worry! I’ve got a pretty good handle on scheduling (yes, I had scheduled all of 2021 back in 2020), and I’m not writing a book (or should I say ‘haven’t been’? … This is the part of writing posts in the future that gets confusing!) this year, so I should have plenty of time to teach myself some new effects.

So for now, you can go digging through the old tutorials, and practice this effect while you wait for new ones. Also, if you aren’t already, keep an eye on my Twitter, where I’ll share updates on what’s happening, so you can stay in the loop.

Okay, I think that’s enough rambling, now onto the effect!

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Tutorial Series - Shattered Text - Shattered Text Effect Done - phsh, phsh tutorial, photoshop, photoshop tutorial, phsh effect

This effect, like many others, probably looks complicated, but isn’t really, it’s more time consuming than anything else. (But we’ll get to why in a bit)

Step 1. 

On a new project/document/file (I swear one day I’ll learn what it’s called!), type whatever text you want to shatter. For the purposes of simplicity, I’ll just use the word Shattered.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Tutorial Series - Shattered Text - Step 1 - phsh, phsh tutorial, photoshop, photoshop tutorial, phsh effect

You can do this effect on any font/colour, but if you want it to really look good, I suggest using a thick font, like Arial, and to change the word colour to white/off white. (So it looks more like glass) Then, change the background colour from white to black. I’ve also centered the text, but again, this is optional. It all depends on what you want the final product to look like.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Tutorial Series - Shattered Text - Step 1 A - phsh, phsh tutorial, photoshop, photoshop tutorial, phsh effect

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Tutorial Series - Shattered Text - Step 1 B - phsh, phsh tutorial, photoshop, photoshop tutorial, phsh effect

After changing the font, to make it extra thick (so we have more room to work with the effect), you can also change the Font Style so the text looks even thicker. I picked Black, but the Bold, or even a different really thick font should work.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Tutorial Series - Shattered Text - Step 1 C - phsh, phsh tutorial, photoshop, photoshop tutorial, phsh effect

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Tutorial Series - Shattered Text - Step 1 D1 - phsh, phsh tutorial, photoshop, photoshop tutorial, phsh effect

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Tutorial Series - Shattered Text - Step 1 D2 - phsh, phsh tutorial, photoshop, photoshop tutorial, phsh effect

Step 2.

See how much better that’s already looking? Now, I want you to pick a center point on your word, and, using the Ellipse Tool, draw a small circle at the point. This will be used as the impact point, and will serve as the central part for when we begin to shatter the pieces. To keep things simple, I’ll use the bottom of the middle letter.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Tutorial Series - Shattered Text - Step 2 A - phsh, phsh tutorial, photoshop, photoshop tutorial, phsh effect

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Tutorial Series - Shattered Text - Step 2 B - phsh, phsh tutorial, photoshop, photoshop tutorial, phsh effect

Step 3.

Now, using the same tool, switch to the Line Tool, and draw straight lines radiating out from the circle, to begin dividing the word into pieces.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Tutorial Series - Shattered Text - Step 3 A - phsh, phsh tutorial, photoshop, photoshop tutorial, phsh effect

Keep going until you’ve fractioned off the whole word. Hint: Holding down SHIFT while drawing the lines will keep them totally straight.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Tutorial Series - Shattered Text - Step 3 B - phsh, phsh tutorial, photoshop, photoshop tutorial, phsh effect

Step 4.

Now to make things easier, select all the lines and circle you just made (either hold CTRL and click on each layer in the Layers Panel, or press and hold SHIFT and click on the first and last shape layers), then right-click and select Merge Shapes from the menu. This will collapse the guide we just made into 1 layer.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Tutorial Series - Shattered Text - Step 4 - phsh, phsh tutorial, photoshop, photoshop tutorial, phsh effect

Once collapsed, feel free to re-name it Guide or something similar, so you know what it is. To rename a Layer, double click on the Layer Name (the word beside the thumbnail picture) and type whatever you want to name the layer, then hit Enter to make the change.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Tutorial Series - Shattered Text - Step 4 A - phsh, phsh tutorial, photoshop, photoshop tutorial, phsh effect

Step 5.

Now to actually make the shards. First, right click on the Type layer, then select Rasterize Type. This will make the text no longer editable with the Type tool, but will allow us to cut and crop it as if it’s an image. (Which is what we need)

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Tutorial Series - Shattered Text - Step 5 A - phsh, phsh tutorial, photoshop, photoshop tutorial, phsh effect

After this, using your Pen tool, begin to cut out the shapes of the shards following the guide you created. (Make sure you do this on the word layer, and not the guide layer) You can also lower the Opacity of your guide layer, so it’s less distracting.

When using the Pen Tool, you’ll want to make points at the edges of the selection. Make triangles when clicking, then right-click and click ‘Make Selection’. Then, using the Rectangular Marquee Tool, right click on the selection again, and this time select Layer via Copy. (You can also do this by going up to the Layers tab in the top menu, and then going to New – Layer Via Copy)

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Tutorial Series - Shattered Text - Step 5 B - phsh, phsh tutorial, photoshop, photoshop tutorial, phsh effect

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Tutorial Series - Shattered Text - Step 5 C - phsh, phsh tutorial, photoshop, photoshop tutorial, phsh effect

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Tutorial Series - Shattered Text - Step 5 D1 - phsh, phsh tutorial, photoshop, photoshop tutorial, phsh effect

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Tutorial Series - Shattered Text - Step 5 D2 - phsh, phsh tutorial, photoshop, photoshop tutorial, phsh effect

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Tutorial Series - Shattered Text - Step 5 E - phsh, phsh tutorial, photoshop, photoshop tutorial, phsh effect

Repeat this until you have separate layers for each section made by the Guide.

Step 6.

Now that you have all the pieces you’ll need on separate layers, comes the fun part. Hide the original text layer, so just the pieces are left visible.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Tutorial Series - Shattered Text - Step 6 A - phsh, phsh tutorial, photoshop, photoshop tutorial, phsh effect

Now, starting with 1 of the sections, slightly move it so it’s not touching the rest of the pieces, this will make it look broken. You can also slightly turn the pieces as well, if needed.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Tutorial Series - Shattered Text - Step 6 B - phsh, phsh tutorial, photoshop, photoshop tutorial, phsh effect

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Tutorial Series - Shattered Text - Step 6 C - phsh, phsh tutorial, photoshop, photoshop tutorial, phsh effect

Continue to do this for all the pieces, keeping in mind the circle from your guide is the central point, so all the pieces should look like they ‘broke’ from there. Also keep in mind, sometimes less is more, and the effect may look better without drastic changes, but this will depend on the look you’re going for.

Also, once you’ve moved all the pieces, hide your Guide layer, so you can see what it looks like.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Tutorial Series - Shattered Text - Step 6 D - phsh, phsh tutorial, photoshop, photoshop tutorial, phsh effect

Now all the pieces are where you want them, you can go ahead and save yourself the PHSH file. (Which I always recommend, but especially recommend for effects that take multiple layers!) Once you have an editable PHSH file saved, you can go ahead and delete your Guide and intact Shattered layer, and then you can flatten and save as a PNG or JPEG file.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Tutorial Series - Shattered Text - Shattered Text Effect Done - phsh, phsh tutorial, photoshop, photoshop tutorial, phsh effect

And there you have it! Another effect is done!

This looks pretty great on it’s own, but, if you want to really give it some oomph, arrange your text on an image of broken glass pieces. If needed, (depending on your background), you can also Bevel and Emboss the text pieces so they appear to be raised, and, you can also add an Inner Shadow as well. (Both of these are techniques I’ll be showing in later tutorials.)

Adding these extra steps are totally not needed, but can add a little extra ‘wow’ factor to your cover, depending on the look you’re going for. And, like most of the other effects I’ve shown you, this Shattered text technique works in a LOT of different contexts.

This is the same technique I used on the Broken cover, to make the title look like it was written across the mirror. It’s less shattered than what I did in the glass shards picture, but still works.

Play around with the fracturing to see what works for you.

Like I said at the beginning of the tutorial, this is the last one for this year, but I’ll be back some time next year with a brand new set of effects! So go ahead and practice, because while I don’t know exactly what I’ll show you, I do know the effects/techniques are just gonna keep getting harder from here. So make sure you take the time to master the early ones!


Like this tutorial? Check out the rest of the series here!

Liking the site? Consider signing up for my Patreon, so I can continue bringing you the content you love!

Making a GIF (PHSH Effect #16)

Loading

Don’t be scared! Making a GIF is not nearly as complicated as you may think!

Well, okay, that’s not technically true. It can actually get complicated, but that’s completely dependant on what you want to GIF. Don’t worry though, because this is just a tutorial, I’ll be keeping things simple, and you can always practice and work your way up to complicated later.

In the interest in keeping things simple, I’ll just show you how to make the GIF I teased in the last tutorial.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - Photoshop Tutorial Series - Making a GIF - This Is a GIF - photoshop, photoshop tutorial, PHSH tutorial, writing tips, indie authors, book help, book cover tips, photo manip, GIF

Also, real quick, ‘GIF’ stands for Graphics Interchange Format. So, the proper pronunciation is to say it with a hard ‘g’ sound, not with a ‘j’ sound. Now that you know what it stands for, I hope you will start saying it correctly, because now you don’t have an excuse. (Unless you say ‘jraphics’, but I’m gonna go ahead and assume you don’t)

Okay, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get started!

Step 1.

First things first, set up a new document/work file in Photoshop, and make it whatever dimensions you want. Then, using the Type tool, type some words for us to GIF, and make sure you type them all on different layers. Since I’m showing you the GIF I teased last time, I typed out This is a GIF on 4 separate layers. But it can be any text you want. (Or it can even be a picture, but we’ll get to that later)

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - Photoshop Tutorial Series - Making a GIF - Step 1 - photoshop, photoshop tutorial, PHSH tutorial, writing tips, indie authors, book help, book cover tips, photo manip, GIF

Step 2.

Next, go up to Window (in the top menu with File) and click on Timeline from the drop-down menu.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - Photoshop Tutorial Series - Making a GIF - Step 2 - photoshop, photoshop tutorial, PHSH tutorial, writing tips, indie authors, book help, book cover tips, photo manip, GIF

Once you click on that, you should see a banner come up on the bottom of the window, this is called the Timeline. There should be 1 ‘frame’ with your layers already in it that popped up as well.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - Photoshop Tutorial Series - Making a GIF - Step 2A - photoshop, photoshop tutorial, PHSH tutorial, writing tips, indie authors, book help, book cover tips, photo manip, GIF

Step 3.

Now that you have the Timeline open, you have to place each layer onto different frames. This is actually much simpler than it may sound. First step, is to take them off the first frame. To do this, simply go over to your Layers Panel, and hide the layers you don’t want visible in the first frame. (Click on the eye beside the layer to hide it)

The only thing visible in the first frame should be the word This.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - Photoshop Tutorial Series - Making a GIF - Step 3 - photoshop, photoshop tutorial, PHSH tutorial, writing tips, indie authors, book help, book cover tips, photo manip, GIF

Step 4.

Now we have to make more frames. To do this, click on the Duplicate Frame button in the timeline. It is the button that looks like the New Layers button.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - Photoshop Tutorial Series - Making a GIF - Step 4 - photoshop, photoshop tutorial, PHSH tutorial, writing tips, indie authors, book help, book cover tips, photo manip, GIF

To make this the 2nd frame, we are going to hide the This layer, and un-hide the is layer. You do this in the exact way you did to hide all the layers, but the hidden layer won’t have an eye next it. That’s okay, just click in the little square, and the eye and layer will appear, making the layer un-hidden.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - Photoshop Tutorial Series - Making a GIF - Step 4A - photoshop, photoshop tutorial, PHSH tutorial, writing tips, indie authors, book help, book cover tips, photo manip, GIF

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - Photoshop Tutorial Series - Making a GIF - Step 4B - photoshop, photoshop tutorial, PHSH tutorial, writing tips, indie authors, book help, book cover tips, photo manip, GIF

Continue to duplicate, and hide/un-hide layers until you have 1 frame for each layer. If you get confused, look at the frames – you should be able to see in the frame preview that there is only 1 word in each frame.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - Photoshop Tutorial Series - Making a GIF - Step 4C - photoshop, photoshop tutorial, PHSH tutorial, writing tips, indie authors, book help, book cover tips, photo manip, GIF

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - Photoshop Tutorial Series - Making a GIF - Step 4D - photoshop, photoshop tutorial, PHSH tutorial, writing tips, indie authors, book help, book cover tips, photo manip, GIF

Step 5.

Now that we have all the frames correct, we can check how the GIF looks. To do this, click on the 1st frame (to start the GIF from the beginning), and then click the Play button in the Timeline. Your frames should then ‘play’, and you can see if you need to fix/change anything.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - Photoshop Tutorial Series - Making a GIF - Step 5 - photoshop, photoshop tutorial, PHSH tutorial, writing tips, indie authors, book help, book cover tips, photo manip, GIF

Step 6.

If you think your GIF is moving too slowly (or too fast), you can change the speed by clicking on the arrow that’s under the frame, next to the time, and then select the time you think will work best for you. Keep playing with it until you find a speed you need, and to check the speed, just Play the frames again until it looks right for your needs. (For the most part, I’ve found the default of 0.5 seconds to be sufficient)

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - Photoshop Tutorial Series - Making a GIF - Step 6 - photoshop, photoshop tutorial, PHSH tutorial, writing tips, indie authors, book help, book cover tips, photo manip, GIF

Now that you’ve got the timing right, you may want to change the Loop type as well, so that it continuously plays, instead of just playing once. In the Timeframe box, under the frames, there should be a Loop dropdown. Click on the drop-down menu, and select Forever from the list. This will make your GIF play in a continuous loop, well… forever. (If the default is already Forever, you can ignore this step)

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - Photoshop Tutorial Series - Making a GIF - Step 6B - photoshop, photoshop tutorial, PHSH tutorial, writing tips, indie authors, book help, book cover tips, photo manip, GIF

Step 7.

Now that you’ve completed your GIF, it’s time to save. But wait!

You can not save a GIF in the same way you’ve been doing (Flattening then saving as a PNG/JPEG). Well, okay, actually you can save it like that, but then it won’t play.

If you want to save the GIF to actually play, you’ll have to go up to File, then find Save For Web in the drop-down.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - Photoshop Tutorial Series - Making a GIF - Step 7A - photoshop, photoshop tutorial, PHSH tutorial, writing tips, indie authors, book help, book cover tips, photo manip, GIF

In the dialogue box that comes up, make sure GIF is selected as the format, and leave everything else the default.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - Photoshop Tutorial Series - Making a GIF - Step 7B - photoshop, photoshop tutorial, PHSH tutorial, writing tips, indie authors, book help, book cover tips, photo manip, GIF

Then, click the Save button on the bottom of the box, and then from there you can give the file a name and save it to wherever you need to, like any other file.

And there you have it! You now know how to make a GIF! I told you it wasn’t that hard. And the cool thing is the steps are exactly the same no matter what you’re doing.

So, say you want to make a picture move. Let’s say you want to make a rocket ship take off.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - Photoshop Tutorial Series - Making a GIF - Rocket Ship GIF - photoshop, photoshop tutorial, PHSH tutorial, writing tips, indie authors, book help, book cover tips, photo manip, GIF

The steps are exactly the same, except instead of using text, we’re moving a picture. And, it takes more frames. Also, because it’s just one picture (minus the booster flames), all I’m doing is moving the picture slightly between frames, so it appears to be flying.

Here’s what the PHSH work file looks like:

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - Photoshop Tutorial Series - Making a GIF - Rocket Ship PHSH File - photoshop, photoshop tutorial, PHSH tutorial, writing tips, indie authors, book help, book cover tips, photo manip, GIF

Each time I moved the rocket, I placed a Guideline where the nose was, so I’d know how much to move it in the next frame. You can see here that I also changed the play speed twice. In the first few frames, it’s set at 0.2 seconds, and then after the ‘booster’ (flames) comes out the bottom, I changed it to 0.1 second, so it appears like the rocket sped up.

Go ahead and play with this technique – it is one of the more fun ones. You guys have until October to keep yourselves busy with GIF making, after which, I’ll be showing you how to create:

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Tutorial Series - Shattered Text - Shattered Text Effect Done - phsh, phsh tutorial, photoshop, photoshop tutorial, phsh effect


Like this tutorial? Check out the rest of the series here!

Liking the site? Consider signing up for my Patreon, so I can continue bringing you the content you love!

Burning a Picture (PHSH Effect #10)

Loading

Happy New Year everybody!

I hope you all had a relaxing holiday season (or at least, had time to unwind now that it’s over) and are ready to dive head-first with me back into the tutorials.

To kick off the new year, I’ll be showing you how to use the Burn tool. It’s pretty straight forward, but if you need a quick refresher, go skim back over the Intro. It’s alright, I’ll wait.

…. You back? Good.

Okay, so using the Burn tool like I said is pretty straightforward, fortunately, this is one of the PHSH tools that’s aptly named. Using this tool will do exactly what the name implies: it’ll burn the picture.

If that sounds scary, I promise it’s really not that hard. You can control the intensity of the burn, so you don’t end up ruining the picture. Which is great, because sometimes, you just may want to go simple and say, darken the picture.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Burning a Picture -Burned Edge LIGHTEST

(Don’t mind the red background)

You could mess with the white balance or other picture exposure, but messing with those tends to be much more complicated.

Or, you may want to go for a more extreme manip, like actually making the picture appear to be burned:

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Burning a Picture - Burned Picture Done

Or you may need something in the middle. Regardless, it’s a very straight forward tool to use.

Let’s get started.

Today, we’ll be working with my I.D. pic, simply because I think it looks good burned. Pictures that tend to be darker and have lighter edges usually work better for this effect, but again, it depends how far you’re going.

 

Step 1.

Alright, so to start, you’re gonna need the un-touched picture.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Burning a Picture - AterImber I.D. Picture w/ White Background

Once you have this in a Layer, you may want to change the background colour from white, just so it’s easier to see where the edges of the picture are, so you can be more precise.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Burning a Picture - Changed Background Colour

The colour of the background doesn’t really matter, especially since we can change it once you’re done, but I find it’s easier to work when you can see where the edge of the picture is.

 

Step 2.

Alright, now that we have the picture, we’ll want to select the Burn tool from the left side Tool Bar. It’s the picture of a hand in a C shape, directly under the Blur/Sharpen/Smudge tool.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Burning a Picture - Burn Tool Location

You may have to click on the box and manually select Burn from the drop-down menu. I believe the default image may be the Dodge tool, which looks like a lollipop.

 

Step 3.

Once you have the Burn tool selected, (and the layer you want to use the tool on selected), you’ll notice some options came up at the top of the application, in the same space where the Eraser options are.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Burning a Picture - Burn Tool Options

The drop-down menu with the circle in it is the brush size, similar to the Eraser, you can make it bigger or smaller by using the sliders. The Hardness slider underneath will determine how hard/feathered the edge of the tool will make. (These are both exactly the same as for the Eraser tool)

For example, if the Hardness is on 5%:

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Burning a Picture - Hardness 5%

Or 90%:

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Burning a Picture - Hardness 90%

 

For the burn tool, it works the same:

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Burning a Picture - Hardness Burn 90%

(90% Hardness)

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Burning a Picture - Hardness Burn 5%

(5% Hardness)

There’s also the option to change the Range. This will change the area of the picture you’re targeting. You can choose from either the Highlights, Mid-Lights or Shadows. I discovered that if you (for example) only target highlights, there will be a point where the image won’t get any darker. (I presume because it’s gotten rid of all the highlights)

When I was experimenting for the tutorial, as I did this, the picture didn’t get any greyer until after I changed what I was targeting. I recommend you play around with this, as it depends on the picture. I’ve tried changing the targeted areas in the past for other projects, and I saw no difference at all, as if the tool wasn’t working.

And the last option will be the Exposure. Next to the brush size, this is the most important part of using the Burn tool. The Exposure will determine how dark the section will get. I recommend not starting at 100, unless you want the entire picture to go near all black on your first go. I usually start small, and then up the Exposure depending on the look I was going for.

For the picture above with the burned-by-fire look, I used 100% Exposure on the edges. The rest of the picture, to just darken it, I used about 10-20.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Burning a Picture - 100% Exposure Burn

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Burning a Picture - 10% Exposure Burn

 

Step 4.

Now that you know the options, let’s show you how I did the Soft Burned or just darkened picture, and then the Burned By Fire picture.

So, for the Soft Burn, I kept the Exposure low, about on 10, and I feathered the edge of the brush. Because I rubbed the tool all over the entire picture, I don’t actually think the Hardness made a difference, but since I was being ‘soft’ it just seemed to go.

Okay, so, set the brush size to really big (I used 300-400), and (while keeping the Exposure low) click and drag the brush over the entire picture.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Burning a Picture - Light Burn First Line Drag

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Burning a Picture - Light Burn All Dragged

And boom! Soft Burned pic is done. Told you it was easy!

Now for the Burned By Fire picture, it’ll be the same thing. We can actually continue on from this picture, since it’s already burned.

 

For the Burned By Fire pic:

Now that we’ve got the whole thing looking a little singed, we’ll want to up the Exposure to about 50 and reduce the brush size (I reduced it to 130).

We’re going to just go around the edges of the picture now, similar to when we made a Border. You can leave the Hardness down at 4% for this as well. A lack of hard edge will make it look more realistic of a burn.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Burning a Picture - Burned Border Light

Now we’re going to do that again and again, until the border becomes almost black. So, keeping the stats where they are, continue to go around the edges until it becomes blackened.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Burning a Picture - Dark Grey

At this point (it took me about 10 go a-rounds to get it this dark) you should up the Hardness to about 40-50 as well. We’re going to be concentrating now on just getting the edges black, so we’ll need to contain the burn a bit more.

After changing the Hardness, keep going.

Also: don’t worry about making the outline too clean cut straight, it’s okay if it’s a bit of wobbly lines. Again, it adds to the realism of if the picture were burned, and we’ll be erasing the very edge of the photo after anyway. And, as you’re going, make sure to round the edges of the corners slightly.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Burning a Picture - Rounded Edges

After a few more go arounds, you may notice that the border isn’t getting any darker any longer. Mine wouldn’t get darker than this:

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Burning a Picture - No More Dark

That’s because we’ve been burning with the Highlights selected. Now we can change to either the Midtones or the Shadows. I like going to Midtones and then to Shadows, just because I like to do them in order. Again, I’m not entirely sure at this point, but since we’re trying to replicate what I did, we gotta do it the same way, right? Right.

Okay, so after selecting Midtones and going around a few more times, mine stopped getting darker again at this point:

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Burning a Picture - Mindtone Burned

At this point, you need to switch to the Shadows, and then keep going until the edges turn all the way black.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Burning a Picture - Shadow Burn

Okay, now that we got the edges, I think you can tell, the all over burn job we did at the beginning no longer matches, does it?

No worries, we’re gonna go back over the entire picture now. We had to wait to see how dark the edges were going to get, juuust in case we messed up.

Remember: You can always make the picture more burned, but it’s harder to un-burn it.

Alright, so to go over the entire picture, change the hardness to softer, the brush size to bigger, and the Exposure back down to about 10. And, you may need to switch the Range back to Highlights. If you try to go back over the lighter part of the picture with the Range still on Shadows, it may not work.

You don’t want to make it too much darker, but it has to match the edges. Try to get it to look as realistic as possible.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Burning a Picture - Reburned All

Now, you could leave it like this, but, for a little extra realism, I like to erase the hard edge of the picture. How often have you seen a burned picture with perfectly intact edges?

Exactly.

Switch from the Burn tool to the Eraser tool, change the size of the brush again (smaller), and keep the hardness semi-low. (50-60-ish)

Now – carefully – erase the very edges of the picture, and make sure to round the corners a bit. Again, this erase job doesn’t have to be perfectly straight.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Burning a Picture - Erased Edges

And boom! That’s everything.

Don’t forget to take out/change the background so you can save the picture by itself, or drag it on over to whatever file you need it in!

This way of burning pictures does take longer (obviously) but depending on the look you’re going for, it’s also a more realistic effect.

You can pretty much use this burned technique on any photo. And of course, you can make the burned/blackened edges bigger or smaller if needed, so you can erase more of the picture for a more burned up effect.

Have fun practicing this technique until next month.


Like the tutorial? Check out the rest of the tutorials here!

Liking the site? Consider signing up for my Patreon, so I can continue bringing you the content you love!

Changing Eye Colour (PHSH Effect #8)

Loading

Found the perfect royalty free image that fits your character, but they have the wrong coloured eyes? Tired of wading through endless ‘guy with beard’ pics trying to find the perfect one?

This tutorials’ for you!

This month, I’ll show you how to change any picture of a person, (or animal, or anything else with an iris) eye colour.

As I’m hoping you’ve picked up at this point in this series, these effects aren’t nearly as hard as one might think. There is more than one way to achieve this, but I’ll show you the easier way that I’ve found.

 

Alright, so to go from this:

to this:

AterImber.com - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Changing Eye Colour - Purple Eye - phsh effect, phsh tutorial, phsh help, writing help

Follow below:

 

Step 1. Open your image in Photoshop. Make a duplicate layer of it. (Just in case you mess up) For this tutorial, I’ll just be using the dog photo from above.

AterImber.com - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Changing Eye Colour - Duplicate Dog - phsh effect, phsh tutorial, phsh help, writing help

Step 2. Using the Eliptical Marque Tool, draw a circle around the iris (the part of the eye with colour).

AterImber.com - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Changing Eye Colour - Iris Selected - phsh effect, phsh tutorial, phsh help, writing help

Step 3. Go to the top Menu bar and go to Select – Modify – Feather and set it to 10px. The circle you drew should get a tad smaller – don’t worry, it’s supposed to.

AterImber.com - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Changing Eye Colour - Select Modify Feather - phsh effect, phsh tutorial, phsh help, writing help

AterImber.com - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Changing Eye Colour - Feather 10px - phsh effect, phsh tutorial, phsh help, writing help

Step 4. Go back up to the top Menu and go to Layer – Create Clipping Mask

AterImber.com - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Changing Eye Colour - Layers Create Clipping Mask - phsh effect, phsh tutorial, phsh help, writing help

Step 5. Once you did that, then go back up to Image, and this time go to Adjustments – Black and White, and make all the values 0.

AterImber.com - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Changing Eye Colour - Image Adjustments Black and White - phsh effect, phsh tutorial, phsh help, writing help

AterImber.com - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Changing Eye Colour - Black and White 0 - phsh effect, phsh tutorial, phsh help, writing help

Step 6. Now to actually change the eye colour. Go to the Layers panel, down at the bottom, and go to Solid Colour, and pick a colour. Literally any colour you want.

AterImber.com - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Layers, Solid Colour - phsh effect, phsh tutorial, phsh help, writing help, changing eye colour

AterImber.com - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Solid Colour - phsh effect, phsh tutorial, phsh help, writing help

Step 7. If the colour goes outside the iris, that’s okay. If that happens, you can just use the Eraser tool and erase around the part that’s outside the eye. Also, if the colour is very clearly over the pupil, you can erase that part too, to make it look more realistic. Or, (sometimes) you can get away with changing the Opacity of the colour, so it’s not so obviously over the pupil.

AterImber.com - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Opacity - phsh effect, phsh tutorial, phsh help, writing help

Aaaand, that’s it! Yep, told you it was easy. Now you can delete the duplicated layer and don’t forget the most important step of all: Save!


Like this tutorial? Check out more here!

Liking the site? Consider signing up for my Patreon, so I can continue bringing you the content you love!

Removing a Background from an Image (PHSH Effect #7)

Loading

Like Removing a Foreground Object, removing the background from an image isn’t as hard as it may first appear.

We kind of already did this in the making a background transparent tutorial, too. But this one is different in that we’re not making the background transparent, we’re removing it completely so you could put another picture in the background. Admittedly, turning the background transparent and then just transplanting the new background may be easier, but it’s important to know both.

So, here we go!

I’m just going to use the same beach picture I used for the Removing a Foreground Object tutorial, because it’s a pretty clear-cut foreground/background object.

Step 1. Start with your image (in this case, the beach image).

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Removing a Background Object - Beach Coconut - phsh tutorial, photoshop tutorials, photoshop effects

Working on the beach image layer, use the Quick Select Tool (in the left tool bar) and select the area you want to keep. In this case, it’d be the coconut.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Removing a Background Object - Quick Select Foreground Object - phsh tutorial, photoshop tutorials

Step 2. In the Select menu (at the top of the screen), select Refine Edge. In the dialogue box that pops up, change Shift Edge to 10% and Contrast to 15%. In the Output Settings, (at the bottom of the dialogue box), change the output to a Layer Mask.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Removing a Background Object - Refine Edge Dialogue Box

Hit Okay, and boom! Background is gone!

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Removing a Background Object - Removed Background

Now that the background is removed, you can add whatever background to the image you want.

AterImber.com - Writing - Writing Tips - PHSH Effect Series - Removing a Background Object - New Background

Obviously this one doesn’t quite look like it belongs, because I left the shadow in the selection (which is the wrong colour of the sand), but you should get the gist. You can always change the lighting, add more effects, to touch it up to make it look like it belongs more than just copy/pasting it into another photo. (In fact, I recommend you do so it doesn’t look like it’s actually photoshop-ed)

But that’s it! Not too hard, right?

Next month, due to it being Halloween, I’ll be showing you how to add blood drops to borders, words, etc.


Like this tutorial? Check out the others here!

Liking the site? Consider signing up for my Patreon, so I can continue bringing you the content you love!