Unit 53: Digital Graphics for print

Charlie Slade

Removing a background

The purpose of this presentation is to remove the background of this image by using the Photoshop tools.

First you must insert your desired image by dragging it into Photoshop via your images.

Then to start to delete the background, you will need to go to the select button at the top, then go to, colour range and it will come up with the box on the right you can see. You then select the areas which you wish to delete you will have to first click on the colour range tool with the plus sign next to it to do so.

What you then do is, you go to the mask button, the second from the bottom on the left hand side. Double click it and another box will appear. You press selected areas set the percentage to 100% and change the colour to black. Then click OK.

Once you have clicked ok the box will disappear and you will then have to click on the paint brush on the left hand side, and paint over the remaining parts of the image you can still see/ the white parts, to make an all black silhouette.

Once you have masked the layer you will need to click the mask button once again to get off it, you then will see your picture with out with the appropriate dotted lines around your image. You then need to go to select once again but this time select refine edge. A Box will appear again you then adjust the setting to your desire. (contrast should always be set to 50%)

What you must then do is, select layer and the go to new (the first option) then to, Layer via copy. This will then duplicate you layer but only the image, and copy it to a plain/transparent background which is represented as the checked grey and white.

Editing Text

Fire text

To start creating you fire text you will need to make a new document. Go to new, change the width to 100mm and the height to about 50mm.

You then need to make the background a black fill, so go to the Edit button at the top of the page, and click fill. A box will appear as shown below, you the need to click on the drop down menu and select black.

Next you will have to type your text in. So select the text button on the left hand-side, click on your page and type in your text. Once you have then done this, you will need to create a duplicate of this layer. You then need to right click and select rasterize, do this to both layers. Then press the eye button to make the duplicate layer not visible as we will need to come back to it later but we do not need it right now.

Then go to the Image button at the top of the page and then select rotate canvas, then click 90CW . Next you want to add the wind. To do so you need to go to filter, stylize, then wind.

Then select wind, and from the left (shown on the right). You then will have to rotate your canvas back again so select image at the top of the page again, click rotate canvas, then 90CCW .

Next you want to add the blur, to make it look flowy. Go to the filter button at the top of the page again, select blur, then Gaussain blur.

A box will appear (as shown on the right) and you will need to set the blur bar between 0.1 and 1.5 depending on how big your canvas is.

Next you must go to filter once again, this time select liquify. Then select the forward warp tool (the top tool on the left) and set the brush size between 10-20.You then drag the parts of your text to create the flames. You can then increase the size of your brush to create bigger flames aswell.

Once you have created your flames, you will then select the adjustment layer button, which you will find at the bottom of your layer section, it is a circle split in half and one half coloured in. select that button, then select hue and saturation. You then mess around with that until you get your desired colour.

Then do the same again, but this time, make the colours darker/lighter, this will then give your flames a an outline.

You then need to click the eye button on your duplicated layer of the text which you made earlier. You then need to click on the layer style button, which looks like the letter ‘fx’ and two left from the adjustment layer button. You then need to select gradient overlay. Then double click on the gradient bar this will then allow you to change the gradient and the colour of the gradient. You then can either mess around with the colour untill you get the colour you desire, or you can select the flames which are already coloured to match them.

Working with text

To start you will need a new document select A4 (or any other size as long as it is not too small). You then need to select the text tool and write some text.

You can then edit the text two ways. The first is simple editing like colour, font etc. You can do this by using the bar at the top of the page. (shown n the left)

The Second way is if you click on the clipboard looking button at the top, this will bring up a box where you can edit the text even more so, like, make individual letters bigger, how wide the font is, how far apart each letter is etc.

After you could then give your standard text an effect. For example like shown above, this is called inflate and it creates the effect that the text has been blown up like a balloon. To get these effect you need to highlight your text then click on the button at the top[ of the page which is a T which is distorted and has arrows underneath it.

After you will have a message pop up. This is a rasterize message saying you must rasterize your text layer, which turns the text file into an image.

Once rasterized you can add other cool effect like lighting effects. I chose Render then lens flare.

This then gives the effect of a shine (lens flare) onto the text, you can adjust this by using the pop up menu as seen on the left.

How to add text around a shape

First you need to add a shape into your document. Click on the square shape on your tool bar on the left hand side. Then click and drag to your desired size.

Then click on the text tool you will then move your mouse over to the outer rim of the shape and you can see the text tool changes, click when you see this. Then type and the text will follow the shape edge.

If you would like the text to stay on the inside of the shape you have to do the same as getting the text on the outside, but this time move the text tool to the inside of the shape, the text tool will change once again. Click when it changes, and type, the text will then stay inside of the shape.

Creating a tiled text effect

Firstly you need to make a new document, set it to custom, change the height to 50mm and your width to 100mm.

You then need to change the background to black. To do this you need to go to edit at the top, then fill.

Then click on the drop down menu and select black from it.

Then click OK and your canvas should then change to black.

You then need to click the text tool, write your text and select a colour other than white and black.

Next you will need to go to Filter, Stylize, then tiles.

Then keep the number of tiles at 10, and the maximum offset at 10% as well. Then click OK.

You then will notice a box appearing asking if you want to rasterize the text. All this means is changing the text form into an image form. Click OK

Then your text will become TILED!

Not done just yet though. You then need to go to the magic wand tool, the fourth from the top. Select all the white bits of the text.

Then hit the delete button and all the white bits are gone and you left with your tiled text effect.