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Posted on 29/09/10 04:57:29 AM |
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Shidoshi
* Posts: 12 Reply  |
Red Wallpaper For Sam Spud Project
I was working on the red wallpaper for the Sam Spud project and ran into some difficulty I was hoping some of you could help me with! After creating the door, frame and rails (all in different layers), I added a new layer as a rectangle slection to encompass the vottom half of the wall where the red wallpaper should be and filled it with white. I'm not quite the artist Steve is, so I took a picture of the "half" design presented in the book, opened the JPG file in Photoshop (as another project) and then used my brush tool to trace the half-design on its own layer. I then duplicated and reversed the pattern as instructed and when I finally had a nice little patch of design made, I drug it into my Sam Spud file right on top of the white-filled rectangle selection I would be duplicating the pattern on. I duplicated the pattern as needed and then made sure the patterns and the white box they were arranged on were selected before trying the emboss command. When I did so, only the design was embossed and the white background they were arranged on wasn't affected at all (turning gray). Not sure what I'm doing wrong here, but do any of you see a problem with the process I'm using to do this? Any help would be welcome. Shidoshi |
Posted on 29/09/10 05:01:11 AM |
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Shidoshi
* Posts: 12 Reply |
Re: Red Wallpaper For Sam Spud Project
Oh yes . . . I also forgot that I designed a great doorknob and panel (in a separate file) to drag in to place on the completed door, but when I do that, the curves adjustments I made on the doorknob to get that dark, brass effect suddenly affects my entire image. Why would that be? All the elements for the doorknob are grouped together in itsown folder which is then brought into and added to my layer panel in the Sam Spud project. Is it just a matter of properly adjusting which layers go where? |
Posted on 29/09/10 08:09:11 AM |
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Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 6994 Reply  |
Re: Red Wallpaper For Sam Spud Project
Shidoshi, I don't quite get your approach here - you seem to have the texture on multiple layers (although your idea of photographing and tracing my design was a good one). If you merge all the wallpaper texture layers into one, you may find it easier to apply the emboss effect. If you can post a screen shot of your Layers panel, we may be able to see what's going on better. As to the second point, an Adjustment Layer will affect all layers beneath it. One solution is to make a Clipping Mask of the layer beneath: select the Adjustment Layer, and choose Make Clipping Mask from the Layer menu. Alternatively, now that you've finished creating the doorknob, you could merge all its layers together after bringing it into the main document. You'll still have the original doorknob file in case you want to make any changes later. Steve |
Posted on 30/09/10 04:21:54 AM |
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Shidoshi
* Posts: 12 Reply |
Re: Red Wallpaper For Sam Spud Project
Steve: Thank you for taking the time to respond! When I started the project, I left the background layer locked and just started adding new layers on top of it as I built up. I created all the elements of the door, the skirting board and the wood trim separating the two layers of wallpaper. For the upper wallpaper, I opened a new layer, drew out a large rectangle selection around all the area that needed to be wallpapered and dropped in a fill - which seemed to work just fine. I then added my shading and tears as detailed in the book. For the bottom half of the wallpaper, I was attempting to apply the same concept: I opened a new layer and pulled out a large rectangle selection over all the area that would need to filled with the red wallpaper. I filled it white, positioned it in the proper stack order among my layers as it would need to be in the finished project and left it that way to get back to it later. I opened a brand new file and used that to trace and format the actual design itself. Once I had traced your design, duplicated and flipped it the proper amount of times to get a nice segment of art, I drug it to the Sam Spud file, scaled it down appropriately and painstakingly duplicated and adjusted the design all over the white-filled layer I mentioned previously. Once that was complete, I selected both layers and used the Filter > Stylize > Emboss procedure and only the design I imported into my file was being effected. I think I tried merging the layers and trying again with no luck. I realize it's very possible I'm going around my ass to get to my elbow (this is my first real experience with Photoshop), so I'm sure there's a much easier way and if that's the case, I'm all ears!! I do design most of the elements of this project in separate files so I can keep their layers open and editable and once I bring them into Sam Spud, I usually merge them and then do my adjustments accordingly. Thank you for the tips! I am still having some trouble with pixelating though when I drag and drop elements into my file. It seems the smaller I scale the selections (especially small items like screws and trunking clips) the more detail I lose. My project is being designed on a 2000 x 3000 pixel file. Thank you for your help and patience with a newbie, Steve! Your book is phenominal and I'm having an incredible time learning (slowly though, I must admit!) I will definitely be adding a lot more of your books to my design library! Respectfully, Shidoshi
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Posted on 30/09/10 07:45:42 AM |
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Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 6994 Reply |
Re: Red Wallpaper For Sam Spud Project
When you say this is your "first real experience with Photoshop", I think you may have jumped in at the deep end... but if that's the kind of guy you are (and it sounds like it), then I'm sure we can help you through it! |
Posted on 01/10/10 00:32:47 AM |
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Shidoshi
* Posts: 12 Reply |
Re: Red Wallpaper For Sam Spud Project
LOL. I suppose you could be right about that, but I'm a quick learner and maybe a little overconfident sometimes too! I've used Photoshop a lot of picture editing, but actually creating art in Photoshop is the new venture for me. I have a friend here locally who's a digital artist and has produced some really great pieces (some of which I have framed and on my wall) and have always been really intrigued and inspired by what he can do. I guess I wasn't content with just admiring! Shidoshi
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