I haven't written any Photoshop tutorials for a while. Today I'm going to share a simple tutorial on how to create reusable background patterns with Photoshop and CSS. I learned this trick from designing WordPress themes. The trick is to create one reusable transparent PNG background and use CSS background-color property to create various color skins. It is particularly useful for creating customizable and dynamic templates (see demos).
I recently spotted an iPhone ad which inspired me to write this tutorial. It is a gift ribbon, consisting of various app icons, wrapped around an iPhone. This effect can be easily achieved with Photoshop Warp transform tool. Christmas is around the corner and I hope you may find this tutorial useful for upcoming projects. If you are not familar with the Warp tool, I sugest you read my Photo Strip tutorial first.
This is a Photoshop tutorial on how to create a beautiful photo film strip, as seen in Apple's iLife package design ('06 version) and DigitalMash website. The warp tool will be used to create the twisting effect (so, you need Photoshop CS2 or above to complete this tutorial). With the completion of this tutorial, you will be able build a photo strip with your own photos or artwork. Don't miss out this fantastic feature!
In case you haven't noticed yet, the hand drawn style is one of the hottest design trends. There are several ways to create hand drawn images — you can create it from scratch in Photoshop or you can scan an actual hand drawn sketch. Personally, I like to use a scanned drawing because you get a realistic drawing texture. Here is a quick tutorial to show you how to create a hand drawn design in Photoshop using the blending mode and alpha channel.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to make a Flash parallax scrolling gallery from scratch. Parallax scrolling is frequently used in most 2D animation and games, where the background images and foreground images scroll at different rate of speed. This will create an illusion of depth as the background images are moving slower than the foreground images.
This tutorial explains how to create a energetic, vibrant, colorful wallpaper, like the ones available at Color Charge. These lines, which we'll call Chroma were highly inspired by the iPod Nano Ad from 2006 and some Quantum Chromodynamics nerdery stuff. You will learn how to bend blurry shapes with Warp tool to draw the lines, beams, and steams. Then you'll know how to add some glowing and vibrating color effects, and finally polish your drawing. Aside reading this tutorial, you'll need Photoshop CS2 or CS3, and preferably a computer with a lot of memory and a larger screen to achieve that effect.
Someone emailed me and asked how did I do the illustration background on Next2Friends. It inspired me to write this article. He asked "Did I do it in Photoshop or Illustrator?" Well, it is a mixture of both. First I created the artwork in Illustrator, then polished it in Photoshop. Here I will unveil all my secret techniques. This tutorial includes 9 Photoshop techniques that will show you how to add more depth, color, contrast, and texture into your vector art.
