Design Articles

How To Transform Slider For Swish Menus

Design Instructor — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 06:34:48 +0000

Step 1: Creating Labels
a) At fist you should create a sprite named actions.
Then you need to insert labels (3 frames apart) starting at frame 10-15.
b) After that you should name the labels. Now you should place a ‘go to previous frame’ action directly behind each label and a ’stop’ action directly behind that.
Step 2: Creating The Slider
a) Now you need to group your next text or graphic as a sprite.
b) Now you should move the text, or graphic that will follow the curser to the default position.
This can even be out of the movie window. In this tutorial the animation is on the ‘X’ path (side to side). Once the ‘follower’ is in the rest spot, you should go to transform in the options panel and see the X value lets say 259. You should go back to you actions frame, click on the first label and after that you need to add the commands in step 3.
Step 3: Adding The Actions
a) Now you need to tell target ‘/follower’ — Then you should add the transform commands to the ‘ X ‘ section…
click on (-=) and add the number 259.
goto transform again. click on (*= and add 0.8) this controls the speed…
goto transform again and add (+=) and add the number 259 again…
b) After that you should repeat this process for each label representing each link.
After this is done, move the follower back to default position. Now you need to add the rollover actions to your buttons.
Link 1 - on rollover - tell target actions – go to label 1 - Not label 0.. Then you need to repeat this process with each link sending the follower to the right label.
On all of the links you should add this action - On roll out- you need to tell target actions – go to frame 0 - Play - the extra 10 frames will give the follower time to move smoothly and not try to jerk back to default position on each roll out. another alt. is to just not add a roll out action at all…

Creating Rounded Corners

Design Instructor — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:32:34 +0000

1. You should start by creating a selection with the Elliptical Marquee Tool on the top right corner as shown on fig. You need to hold down the Shift key while dragging so you get a symmetrical circle.
You should take a close look at the elliptical marquee tool and you can notice that it has 4 small regions on each side of the selection which are flat. When you place the selection you will be using those regions to placed it properly. Below you can see how use the arrow keys to position.

2. make a new selection by using the Rectangular Marquee tool. You should start at the upper left corner and then you need to move it towards the sircle while holding down the Shift key. After that you should stop when you get to the top flat regions of the sircle and continue down just below the black area.
You should have a similar selection as you can see below.

3. Now you need to do the same with the lower part of the sircle. You should start in the lower left corner and then you need to continue up and to the right while holding down the Shift key.

4. The last thing you have to get rid of that upper right corner. You should invert the selection (Shift + Ctrl + I) and hit the delete key. Deselect.

5. It is the simplest way of making round corners, if you want to make all the four corners round.
Ctrl + Click on the shape and then you should go to the Channels palette. You need to hit the Save Selection as Channel button.

You should have an Alpha 1 channel.

7. After that you should go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and make a radius of 6 pixels. Now you need to hit Ok.

8. You should go to Image > Adjustments > Levels (Ctrl + L) and after that you need to move the handles towards the middle.

Now you should make a new selection by Ctrl + Click on the Alpha 1 channel.

9. At last you should go back to the Layers palette and Inverse the selection (Ctrl + Shift + I) and hit the delete key.

Cool Book Effect

Design Instructor — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:04:26 +0000

You should start with blank White canvas, and you should make a selection for a page in the book:

Now you need to distort this to look more like a page out of a book, by curving the middle. Right-click the selection and after that you can choose Make Work Path.. Then you should choose the Pen tool, Add Anchor Point:

You can zoom in and then you can add an anchor point at the top left, like you can see it below :

Now you need to hold Ctrl and after that drag the anchor up a little:

Now you need to do the same to the bottom:

Now you should go to the Paths window (Window > Paths) and right-click the Work Path, and you should choose Make Selection. You should now have a selection of our Path:

Now you need to open up the Layer Styles by either double-clicking the layer or right-clicking it and choosing Blending Options. Now you need to choose a Drop Shadow, and after that reduce the Opacity to 45%, Distance to 3 and Size to 5.

Now right-click this layer and Duplicate it. You need to adjust the Layer Style of this new layer – you should make the Drop Shadow Distance 1 and the Size also 1. Now you should choose the Move tool and after that you should hit the Left key twice, and the Up key once. Repeat this process for the number of pages you want. Here you can see 3 pages:

Shift-click all the page layers you created to select them al (in the Layers window) and then right-click one of them and you should choose Duplicate Layers. Shift-click all the duplicate layers and then you should do Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal, then move them to the other side of the canvas. Also you need to modify the Layer styles - edit each one and uncheck the Use Global Light option under Drop Shadow, and after that change the angle from 120 to 60.

Now you need to Ctrl-click the layer of the top page on the left, and Shift-Ctrl-click the layer of the top page on the right, and you have a selection like this:

Now you need to create a new layer and after that you should move it to the top of all the other layers. On this layer, you should draw a 1px Gray line down the middle of the book. If you want to make it exact, you should choose the Move tool and use the toolbar alignment to align to center:

You should go Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur the line slightly (around 0.5px).
Next, you need to create another new layer beneath this one and still with the selection of the two top pages, after that you should get a large soft brush of gray and paint down the center:

Now you can alter the opacity of either of these layers to get the right blend. Also you should consider adding a background. Enjoy the result!

On Mouse Click

Design Instructor — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 09:52:35 +0000

actionrewind

You are in Scene 1 timeline. Steps 1-6 are done in Scene 1 timeline
Step 1. At the beginning you should create a new movie with dimension 300×100
Step 2. Now you need to insert text “Welcome to swish-db.com”
Step 3. Under Transform Panel (on the right), you can select “Center left”. X=5, Y=50
Step 4. After that you should place a “Place” at frame 0
Step 5. Then you can insert “Move” action in frame 1. Under Move Settings, you may change duration to “50″.
Now you should click on “Preview Frame”, under Transform panel, you need to select “Center Right”. X=295, Y=50
Step 6. Highlight the text under Layout Panel, Right Click >> Grouping >> Group as sprite.
You should be in sprite timeline. Steps 7-8 are done in sprite timeline
Step 7. Using Sprite panel (on the right), you should enter “Movie” under name column (renaming sprite).
Step 8. After that you should place a “Stop” at frame 0 of “Movie” timeline.
Back to Scene 1 timeline. Steps 9-16 are done in Scene 1 timeline
Step 9. Now you need to place a “Stop” at frame 0.
Step 10. After that you should place a “Tell Target” at frame 1. Enter “/Movie” and then you can add a “Go to Frame” Action, Check “Next” and uncheck “Play” box.
Step 11. Then you should place a “Go to Frame” at frame 2. Now you need to add “Go to Frame” Action, Checked both “Previous” and “Play”.
Step 12. After that you should repeat step 10 on frame 4. But Check “Previous” and uncheck “play”
Step 13. Now you should repeat Step 11 on frame 5.
Step 14. Then you must create “Play” button with action >> On(Released) >> Go to Frame 1
Step 15. Now you can create “Rewind” Button with action >> On(Released) >> Go to Frame 4
Step 16. And at last you should create “Stop” Button with action >> On(Released) >> Stop
Finished! Now you can enjoy movie same as preview above.

Creating Reflections in SWiSH

Design Instructor — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 09:31:07 +0000

reflection

Step 1. At first you should open SWiSH and after that you need to create a block of text roughly the same size and color.
Step 2. Now you need to copy and paste the block of text once.
Then you should move it so its positioned under the first block.
Step 3. Right click on the copied block of text.
In the menu that appears you should select ‘transform’ and then you can select ‘flip vertical’ from the menu that opens.
It should look like this:

Step 4. After you should move the ‘upside down’ block of text so the letter points just touch, you can see it below:

Step 5. You should use the resize tool to squash the ‘upside don’ t block of text a little, this will help with the effect.
Now you should have next result:

Step 6. Right click on the ‘upside down’ block of text and then you should select ‘grouping’ from the menu that appears.
Then you need to select ‘Group as Shape’ from the menu that appears.
Now you can add a gradient to the text.
Step 7. Now you have a solid fill.
From the ‘fill’ menu select ‘linear gradient’.
Now you have next result:

Now you need to change the direction of the gradient fill but at first you should edit the colors.
Step 8. Your linear gradient tool bar look like this:

Now you should set the left-hand color to the color of the main block of text.
After that you should set the right-hand color to 0% White.
Step 9. Then you should make sure you still have the ‘upside down’ block of text selected.
After that you need to click the ‘Fill Transform” button on the ‘layout’ toolbar ( ).
Step 10. The red dots surrounding the text will be replaced by blue ones.
Now you can resize and after that you can rotate the gradient-fill until you are left with something like this:

Finished!
Just fine-touch it and perhaps group the two text blocks to keep your workspace tidy.

Creating Explosion

Design Instructor — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:28:01 +0000

1. At first you should create a new document, 500×500 pixels, transparent background, RGB Color.
2. Then you should put FF0000 as the foreground color and fill the layer (alt + backspace)
3. Filter -> Render -> Lighting Effects and you can use the settings below

Photoshop Lighting Effect properties.
4. After that you should create new layer and hit D for defaults
5. Filter -> Render -> Clouds
6. Filter -> Render -> Different Clouds, then you must do it 6 times
7. Image -> Adjust -> Auto Levels
8. Ctrl + U: use the settings below:

Hue/Saturation settings.
9. Then you should duplicate the layer
10. Filter -> Blur -> Radical Blur -> Amount: 100, Blur Method: Zoom, Quality: Best
11. On the original layer, do filter -> render -> lighting effects and use the settings:

Photoshop Lighting Effect properties.
12. On the topmost layer, you can set the blending mode to Lighten. (Double click layer to bring up blending options)
13. On the second layer, you should set the blending mode to Lighten.

Creating 3 Pixel Border

Design Instructor — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:17:43 +0000

Below you can see the easiest way to create a 3 pixel border!

1. At first you should open up your picture, using a black image, with a white background
2. After you should hit CTRL + A or get marquee tool to select all the picture

3. Then you should Click Edit > Stroke - and give it these settings:

4. Now you must again click Edit > Stroke - but this time you should use the color white, and only use a stroke of 2px
5. At last, click Edit > Stroke - settings are only 1px with #000000 (Black)
6. That’s it, hold CTRL and press D to deselect it

Even though it looks like the outside pixel is too thick, it’s really not, it’s just like there anyway, and it will go when you save it.

Creating Rainy Text Effect

Design Instructor — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 10:06:51 +0000

Step 1. At the beginning you should create new layer 550*400. Also you should add to this layer marble texture.

Step 2. Now you should go to Channels and below all channels and new one.:

Step 3. After that you should go to Filter -> Noise -> Add noise. Then you should select next settings:

Step 4. After that you should go to Filet -> Blur -> Gaussian blur. Select next settings:

Step 5. Then you should go to Image -> Adjusments -> Brightness/Contrast. Select next settings:

Step 6. Now you should again go to Filet -> Blur -> Gaussian blur. Select radius: 1,5 px:

Step 7. After that you need to go to Images -> Levels. Select next settings:

Step 8. Holding Ctrl key, you need click on our new cannel, this will select all whites areas. Now you should go to Layers. After that you should add new layer and then you can fill these selections with white color.

Step 9. Now you need Disgusting Behavior font. When you download and install this font, simply write your text.

Step 10. Now you should click Ctrl+E. after that you need add some blending options. At first you should open Bevel and Emboss. Select next settings:

Next in Contour you need to select Raounded steps contour. Click Ok.

Step 11. At last you need to do is set text layer Fill to 10%. Enjoy the result!

Making Flaming Crocodile

Design Instructor — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 09:56:03 +0000

Step 1. At first you should create New layer. Settings you can see below:

Step 2. After that you can fill this layer with black color:

Step 3. Next you should create new layer:

Step 4. Now you should take Brushe tool and after that you can draw one white flexible line. With this line you can make experiments:

Step 5. Now you need to add some layer styles. Then you should go to Outer glow and select settings like this:

After that you should go to Inner glow and there you can select next settings:

Step 6. Now all that you draw in this layer can transform in to fire. For this you should draw crocodile.

Step 7. From this picture you should make crocodile brushe. You need go to Edit -> Define Brush Preset and after that you should named it crocodile:

Step 8. Now you have crocodile brush. You should open your fire layer and after that you can draw your crocodile:

Step 9. Now you should duplicate layer with crocodile:

Step 10. After that you need to delete layers effects from duplicated layer. For this you should click on layer effects and pull them to trash:

Step 11. Now you should add blending mode to Overlay:

Step 12. Now you need to take Smudge tool and after that you can draw some lines under crocodile and then you should make crocodile teethes bigger. Below you can see the result:

How To Make Vectorized Girls Frame

Design Instructor — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 09:47:55 +0000

Step 1. At first you should create new Photoshop document, size 550*500. Then you need to select gradient tool and after that you should fill this layer with yellow sunny color.

Step 2. Now you should add to this document picture that you want to use creating vector frame. After that you need to add girls face in center of this layer..

Step 3. Next you need to create new layer and to this layer this nice vector file.
Layers pallete you can see below:

Step 4. Then by holding Ctrl key click on vector ornament layer. With this action you can select ornament.

Step 5. Now you should make vector ornament layer invisible. After that you should make active layer with girl. You will see that ornament selection is still avalible on girls face.

Step 6. To girl’s layer you need to add layer mask and you can see that girls face transfer in to vector ornament.

Step 7. Now you need to add layer style: Drop shadow. Now you can enjoy the result!