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Tutorial 17 – Banner tutorial

August 31

We’ll be trying to make this banner:
 
 The basic points of this tutorial are blending of images using fancy, fuzzy masks; texture overlays, a bit of adjustment layers and visual cheats.
 
 
 Uses Photoshop cs2. Adjustment layers, Selective coloring, Hue/saturation, Fill layers, Masks.
 It assumes you know how to create and transform layers, make and edit Adjustment layers, group layers, make and edit masks.
 
 
 
 Here’s a quick tip on masks that you’ll need for this tutorial:
 You can copy any grayscale image to apply it as a mask by doing the following:
 0) copy the (grayscale) image to clipboard
 1) create a mask for your layer
 2) hold down left alt key and click the chosen layer’s mask thumbnail. Now you see your mask in all its glory;
 3) paste the image into the mask.
 4) click the layer thumbnail to return to normal view

 
 Also, if your Photoshop is choking up, try applying the masks after you paste them, it should cut Shoppy some slack.
 
 


 
 Images I used:
 
 illust.
 illust.
 
 Textures:
 illust.
 illust. and
 illust. both of which are a crop from this:
 
 

 
 
 


 
 1.
 If you want to follow the tutorial instructions closely, and use the images I supplied, then start from creating a new file. Size: 624×352 px, black (#000000 ) background.
 
 
 2.
 Paste the
 illust.
 [screenshot01.jpg]
 
 
 3.
 Duplicate the layer, flip it horizontaly and nudge it to the left (better to move it in a horizontal neat line, if you’re OCD like me). Set both to Luminosity, 100%.
 
 
 
 Checkpoint no. 1.:
 
 [ step01.jpg ]
 
 
 
 4.
 Now paste the texture number one :
 illust.
 [ txt01.jpg ]
 between them., set it to normal, 100%.
 
 
 Now, the masks. You can play with the upper and lower screenshot layer masks, but the important thing is to hide some of the texture, so the bottom screenshot shines through, right? It’s enough if you just give it an all-white mask, pick a big ( like 200px) fuzzy soft (opacity around 10) black brush and paint a fluffy grey cloud. My mask looks like this, you can copypaste it into yours:
 
 illust.
 [ txtMask01.jpg ]
 
 Remember visual hierarchy, you don’t want this bottomest picture to pop out too much, so keep the texture mask light.
 
 
 
 5.
 Okay. Now group those three layers and give the group a mask like that:
 
 [ groupMask01.jpg ]
 
 I know it looks silly, but it’s important to mask out the parts of image that bring too much chaos. I believe in doodling, so I did it here too.
 
 
 6.
 You can duplicate the reflected screenshot layer, nudge it a little and move it above the group, set to Luminosity, 25%.
 
 
 Your banner now should look something like this:
 
 [step02.jpg ]
 
 
 7.
 Create a fill layer, filled with orange ( #d99939 ), set to Soft Light, 60%.
 
 
 8.
 Now comes my favourite part – the sky texture. The reason I like using it is that it can give the illusion of sky reflected in a window, tv, or any other shiny surface. It might not be exactly the case here, but ohwell.
 
 Paste the texture number two:
 illust.
 [ txt02.jpg ]
 on a new layer above, set it to hard light, 100%. This layer’s mask looks like that:
 
 [ txtMask02.jpg ]
 
 
 9.
 And in a new layer above, paste texture no. 3:
 illust.
 [ txt03.jpg ]
 Set to Hard Light, 100%; This layer’s mask looks like that:
 
 [ txtMask03.jpg ].
 
 
 Checkpoint no. 3:
 
 [ step03.jpg ]
 
 
 
 10.
 New fill layer: dark blue (#0d0d7d ), Exclusion, 30%.
 
 
 11.
 New Adjustment layer: Selective color (Relative), Normal, 100%:
 
 Reds : -38 +28 +27 +0
 Yellows: -50 +10 +40 +0
 Neutrals: +20 -5 -10 +0
 
 Checkpoint no.4:
 
 [ step04 ]
 
 
 12.
 New Adjustment layer: Hue/Saturation, Normal, 100%:
 
 Yellows (H S L): +0 -20 +20
 
 
 13.
 New Adjustment layer: Selective color (Relative), Normal, 100%:
 
 Reds: -25 +10 +35 +10
 Yellows: -40 +20 +15 -10
 Neutrals: +10 +0 -10 +0
 Blacks: +0 +30 +60 +20
 
 
 14.
 Now I made a piece of something that looks like that:
 illust.
 [misc01.jpg ] (set it to multiply, 100%)
 
 because it adds an illusion of depth (the whole banner looks a little like there is a piece of heavy black grid pressing it down).
 
 Checkpoint no. 5:
 
 [ step05 ]
 
 
 
 And we’re getting close to the finale.
 
 15.
 Add text, pimp it up with a doodle, with illegible writing, with vertical crooked, messy lines, to make an illusion that there’s actually something going on in the picture.
 
 
 
 Now comes the kicker:
 Every qaf banner needs a pretty Brian pic, duh. I am exceptionally proud of how it turned out in this piece, because Brian blends into the orange cloud like a vision of Virgin Mary in a gasoline puddle. I left this part for the end just so you can see how much this small move enhances the whole picture.
 
 16.
 Take the Brian picture
 illust.
 [ Brian.jpg ]
 and paste it into a new layer above the bottomest group (the one with guitars and the pool table ) and below the yellow Soft Light fill layer. Set the new Brian layer to Hard Light, 100% and give it a mask. Fill the mask with black and play with fuzzy big white brush, or paste mine and then play :
 
 [ BrianMask.jpg ]
 
 
 
 And, this is it \^_^/
 
 
 
 [final version]
 
 and the layers palette:
 
 
 
 So, the moral of this story is that you can get unexpectedly exciting effects if you play around with blending modes on pictures and different textures. I very rarely (if at all) mix images by cutting out contours, I prefer messing with blending modes and masks, because it’s less tedious, the pictures fit each other more easily, and you can achieve cool contrasts and colors, sometimes by total accident.
 
 
 I encourage everyone to experiment and please show me the results if you followed this humongous, boring tutorial in a non-conventional way 🙂
 See what happens when you hide some of the layers or change their blending mode.
 
 
 
 Feedback is appreciated 🙂

Comments are lovely, and so are questions. If you do end up using this I would love to see what you make out of it!
COMMENTS & QUESTIONS: HERE You can leave anonymous comments as long as you mentioned you are redirected from Reminiscent-Designs!
 
 

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Posted by on August 31, 2008 in Tutorial

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