Sci-Fi Butterfly

tlawrence — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:27:28 +0000

Here’s another design I came up with after playing around with the custom shape tool in Photoshop.

If it doesn’t look familiar, this was created from the butterfly shape in Photoshop, pictured below.

I used a stock photo of a butterfly to add veins to the wings. Each wing is three layers deep with the vein texture on the bottom.

The rest of the effects in the image were basically trial-and-error experimenation with different blending modes and layer effects. I was trying to make the wings look a bit more textured and shadowed to give them a more realistic appearance.

I tried out several different methods to create a glowing effect. I did the antennae using one method, the abdomen (green rings) using another method, and the wings were done with a third method. The spots on the wings also have a bit of illumination to them.

I also added some highlights around the butterfly’s body, the inner part of the wings, and wingtips to give it some depth.

His Dark Materials (book review)

tlawrence — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:38:53 +0000

His Dark Materials is actually a trilogy of three books written by Philip Pullman: The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. You may recognize The Golden Compass as it was made into a film in 2007, although it didn’t do all that great in the box office.

The story basically revolves around two children, Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry, as they wander through a series of parallel universes, meeting friends and foes along the way. The book is full of a variety of characters from giant polar bears and witches to angels and beings that move around on spheres.

The storyline touches on ideas of philosophy, theology, and spirituality and even goes to the point of somewhat retelling the story of Adam and Eve. I’ve read that the series has drawn criticism from some religious groups due to its alleged negative portrayal of organized religion. I did notice this while reading the book, but I’m neutral on the whole topic, so I was not bothered by it.

What I did find interesting were some of the changes made to the U.S. edition of the book. One part in particular touches on Lyra discovering her sexuality and how the event is described. Here’s an excerpt from the original (U.K. edition):

“As Mary said that, Lyra felt something strange happen to her body. She found a stirring at the roots of her hair: she found herself breathing faster. She had never been on a roller-coaster, or anything like one, but if she had, she would have recognized the sensations in her breast: they were exciting and frightening at the same time, and she had not the slightest idea why. The sensation continued, and deepened, and changed, as more parts of her body found themselves affected too. She felt as if she had been handed the key to a great house she hadn’t known was there, a house that was somehow inside her, and as she turned the key, deep in the darkness of the building she felt other doors opening too, and lights coming on. She sat trembling, hugging her knees, hardly daring to breathe, as Mary went on:”

And now the U.S. version of the same passage:

“As Mary said that, Lyra felt something strange happen to her body. She felt as if she had been handed the key to a great house she hadn’t known was there, a house that was somehow inside her, and as she turned the key, she felt the other doors opening deep in the darkness, and lights coming on. She sat trembling as Mary went on:”

Gotta love censorship in the U.S.! All kidding aside, the book is geared toward younger readers as well as adults, so I guess they thought it was a bit too descriptive. What do you think?

All and all, I enjoyed reading the book. Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s going to be a sequel in the box office any time soon seeing as how the first film did poorly. That’s too bad. I’d love to see how some of the events in the second and third book would be portrayed in film.

Autumn Leaves

tlawrence — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 18:52:52 +0000

I was working on some simple patterns in Photoshop using the Shape Tool when I came across the leaf shapes included with Photoshop. One thing led to another and this is what I came up with.

You can see the original shapes in the upper-left corner along with the revised shapes after I added some color and texture. Click on the image to get a better view.

Blocking Those Pesky Apps (on Facebook)

tlawrence — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:41:20 +0000

As Facebook becomes more popular and more applications (games) are added to the Facebook world, there are bound to be some things that don’t interest you. I’ve already seen a number of groups pop up with names such as “I don’t care about your farm”, “I don’t care about your Mafia”, etc.

Basically, people are starting to get annoyed by all the posts and requests they see on their Facebook accounts every day. Hopefully, this two-step process will help to alleviate those annoyances so you can see more of what you want and not the stuff you could care less about.

Step 1 – Hide the Culprit From Your Feeds

When you see one of these annoying posts in your feed, roll your cursor over the post. A “hide” button appears in the upper-right. Click it!

At this point, you can hide the user if you choose, but we’re looking for the second option, hiding the posts from the app. Click the middle option.

If you ever change your mind and would like to see posts from this app again, click the Edit Options link on your feed. This link is currently located at the bottom of your feed on the right side.

Step 2 – Block the Culprit

Blocking posts from other people is only half the battle. Now we need to block the app altogether. Go the main page of the application. For this article I chose Fishville (never played it…just using it as an example.)

See the “Block Application”‘ link down at the bottom, under the application name? Click it!

Click the confirmation message that appears to confirm your choice. That’s it! You should be all set!

You will notice in the confirmation message it mentions this will not prevent you from seeing the application if other people have it installed…that’s why we did step 1, to hide those posts from other people.

Hope this helps to make your Facebooking a little less annoying.

Practice What You Preach

tlawrence — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 15:44:27 +0000

I recently read an article about design blogs and how people should contribute to existing blogs rather than starting their own to help eliminate design blog saturation. Here’s a brief excerpt from the article:

“Today too many blogs are being created, I feel lost in the information and inspiration. There can only be so many different showcases featuring (insert number here) Examples of Brilliant Illustrations. I understand the internet has endless information, and we are just trying to showcase that. I would just like to go to a few destinations to get all the information.”

I’ve had similar views about consolidating information on the Internet. It definitely would be nice to have one site where you can go to find out everything you ever wanted to know about…zebras, for instance. I find that there are too many sites that offer the same content. It’s even more prevalent these days with Twitter. I can’t tell you the number of links I’ve seen from various design blogs that go to the same article.

But I have realized this consolidation will never happen. Too many people out there have their own agendas…whether it’s just having an online presence, self-satisfaction, proving themselves in the eyes of their peers, or maybe just making a buck. Whatever the reason, people are going to post what they want.

I think the author of this article should practice what he preaches. I’m surprised this article was written by someone that falls into the very category he’s trying to eliminate. I visited his site only to find a post about the Olympic logos of the past and present…I’ve seen at least five other sites with this same content. Another post about creating a Bokeh effect…a topic I can read about on numerous sites.

Why not take your own advice, shut down your site and contribute to some of the bigger design blogs you mention? I would have enjoyed reading why YOU have a design blog when you’re telling everyone else they should shut down and contribute to others.

Illustrator Postage Stamp

tlawrence — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:34:37 +0000

Today, I thought I’d do a design using Illustrator. I have to be honest, I really don’t use the app all that much. It’s not that I don’t like it, I just never have the time to learn what it can do. So I went tutorial surfing today to get the learning process started!

I came across a pretty good site that has some good beginner and intermediate stuff. The site is vectordiary.com. The stamp tutorial in particular was the inspiration for this design. After going through the tutorial (10-15 mins), I decided to make my own stamp and put a little twist on it. Since I like to cook and I love BBQ, I thought I’d use a photo of Jenni out in the backyard grillin’ up some ribs.

Here’s the finished design. It’s hard to see, but I added some artistic filters to the image on the stamp so it looked a bit more drawn. I also gave it some depth by tweaking the final image in Photoshop using the Warp tool and adding some shadow. It could probably use a bit more work, but I think it turned out pretty good.

Go Red Wings!

tlawrence — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 13:28:35 +0000

I used several photos of the Stanley Cup as references to create “Stanley” in this design. Typically I work in Photoshop, but the majority of this was done in Flash. I find it easier and quicker to create cartoon-like characters in Flash.

Super Nachos for a Super Game

tlawrence — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:05:05 +0000

Jenni and I had some friends over to watch the Superbowl this year. I decided to make a game-day favorite…nachos! Only these were no ordinary nachos.

Three layers of chips with two cheeses and chicken between each layer.

Topped with a cheesy sauce of Monterey Jack, cheddar, onion, jalapenos, cumin, chili powder, and cayenne.

On top of that, two salsas…

Charred Tomatillo Salsa made with tomatillos, sweet onion, jalapeno, cilantro, mint, and fresh-squeezed lime juice.

Black Bean and Cherry Tomato Salsa made with cherry tomatoes, black beans, cilantro, and lime juice.

They were fantastic!

Happy Valentine’s Day (a bit early)

tlawrence — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:42:20 +0000

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to try and do some more design work this year. It seems to be going around the Web…either design something every day for a year, or take a photo a day for a year, etc.

I don’t think I’d be able to pull off daily results, but I might be able to do the weekly thing. Whether it’s something small and simple or a bit more complicated, I think it’ll be fun. And since Valentine’s Day is approaching, I thought I’d use it in my first design. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Creating Old Photos From New (Photoshop)

tlawrence — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 14:14:08 +0000

I recently went to an air show and took some photos of WWII planes flying overhead. They had a B-17, B-25, and some smaller fighter planes. Some of the photos didn’t turn out all that great, but I didn’t just want to toss them, so I decided to try my hand at creating old photos out of them. Click here to see the final project. Continue reading to see how I achieved it.

Step 1 – Choose the Photo

We need to select a photo. I think those blurry photos everyone shoots at one point or another works well for this tutorial. The blur adds a nice realistic touch to the finished photo. You can always add some blur in Photoshop, but why not use it if it’s already there…one less thing to do. I also chose a photo that was off-center to give it more of that amateur look. It was also cloudy and rainy on this particular day which also helped with the overall effect. If you would like to follow along using the same photo, you can download it here.

Step 2 – Prep the Photo

Out of habit, the first thing I always do is create a duplicate of the photo for safekeeping. So double-click the background (in the Layers palette) to make this a layer and bring up the New Layer window. You can name the layer whatever you want or just leave the default layer name, Layer 0. Once you close that dialog box, right-click on the layer and choose duplicate layer. Again, name the layer whatever you want. It’s not that important for this tutorial. You should now have two identical layers. Lock the bottom layer if you choose for safekeeping.

Step 3 – Hue/Saturation

Next, I created a new Adjustment Layer by clicking the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the layers window. I selected Hue/Saturation… and used the following values. Also be sure to check the Colorize box.

You should now have something similar to this.

Step 4 – Frame Your Photo

At this point, I framed the photo so I had an idea of what the final project will look like. I scanned several old photos and cut out their borders to see what looked best and most realistic for the photo. I thought this one looked the best. Once you download the file, open it in Photoshop and drag it over to your photo, making sure it’s the top layer as shown here. Rename the layer Frame. At this point you will also need to resize the frame as you see fit and position it where you want it, essentially creating the final shot.

Step 5 – Brightness/Contrast

Next, I added a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer the same way I added the Hue/Saturation layer earlier. Place the layer above the Hue/Saturation layer, but below the Frame layer. I added the layer to make the plane look more washed out using the following values:

Brightness: -47

Contrast: 100

Step 6 – Adding Scratches

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen an old photo that didn’t have scratches on it. Go over to images.google.com and do a search for “scratch texture”. I came across the image below, but any texture you find should work. Open the image in Photoshop and drag it to your photo. Again, be sure the texture is below the Frame layer and above the two adjustment layers. Name the layer Scratches.

Once you add the Scratches layer, stretch the layer (CTRL + T) to fit the entire photo, change the Blending Mode of the scratches layer to Overlay, and make the Opacity about 50%. I made 48% in the photo below. You should now have something like this:

Step 7 – Get Creative!

This is where the creativity comes in. Using the Burn and Dodge tools along with the Eraser, I edited the scratch texture to get it exactly how I wanted it to look. The Burn and Dodge tools allow you to darken and lighten areas of the photo. I find using a larger, soft brush works best here (Size:400, Hardness:0). You can also add some Dodge and Burn to the Frames layer to make that look a little more worn. As a final step, I moved my frame into a final position and cropped the photo. Here’s what I came up with.

Now that you know how to make old from new, send me some links to your projects. I’d love to see what you come up with!