Photoshop Practice 2

Today I completed the Firefish Photoshop tutorial. These are some of the tools I learned as well as the finished product.

After I had made some smoke wisps coming off the fish's tail the same way I'd made the flicks of fire, I wanted to add some "smoky stars". I Googled a four point star and opened this in Photoshop. By selecting the star, I then defined it as a custom brush to use on my fish.

Back in the firefish file, I was able to select the newly defined brush from the brushes menu. I made this large and then used it stamp some stars around the smoke wisps.

I wanted some stars to be a bit tilted, so I went and changed the angle of the brush to 45 degrees. I made some more stamps with the tilted brush.

The tutorial wanted a picture of the earth to be inserted behind the fish, but I felt my wispy fish would benefit more from a moon. So I found a picture of the moon on Google, saved the file, then added the new picture as a layer by dragging into the fish file.

The full moon picture didn't quite fit, so I added a layer mask and hid parts of it until there was a crescent with a splattering of small stars left around it.

Next, I added a shadow to the fish. Using the pen tool I drew a solid wobbly shape to act as a shadow. Then, I added a motion blur from the filter menu.

I applied the blur twice. The first time for the x axis and the second for the y axis to create a nice, all round blurriness.

After everything was complete, I made all layers visible and merged them together to the final product.

I exported the file as a JPEG and this is how the picture turned out.

Photoshop Practice 1

Today I progressed through the Firefish Photoshop tutorial. Some of the tools used were documented with screen grabs.

The first tool was layering. In the right-hand side are the layers of the fish. The body, the eye and the lashes are each on their own layers.

 

While working around to find how to use the gradient tool, I incidentally found out how to fill a work path with text instead, using the text tool.

 

 

Each of the licks of flame on the bottom of the fish were made by first creating work paths which are then manipulated before being filled with gradient. At this stage the first work path has been made with the pen tool.

 At this point a tendril path has been drawn and is being manipulated. This is being done by manipulating the anchor points.

 After the path has been completed until it looks flowing, it is selected before the gradient can be applied.

 Since only one colour was chosen, the gradient painted only one colour fading into transparent. The gradient tool has been used to create the lower flames which fade closer to the body. These layers were then merged into one, which was duplicated and flipped to create the fire tendrils above the fish. The same method was used to create tendrils from the centre of the fish.

 With the tail of the fish, I wanted to create a bunch of yellow flicks. Instead of drawing each flick separately, I drew one using the path and gradient tools. Then I duplicated the layer again and again and moved each one with the Move tool. I merged the layers until I had about 5 separate bunches of flicks. Then I duplicated the "bunch" layers and moved and rotated them slightly to make the bunches thicker.

The last tool used before the end of the session was the addition of layer masks to control some of the fading.

Beginning :: Mission Statements and Name / Logo Ideas

The first ideas with regard to company/business mission statement as well as design ideas for names and potential logos.

The games company will produce fantasy genre games in the vein of Square Enix and Capcom, which will be graphically very heavily influenced by Japanese anime style. The idea will be detailed graphics, deep storylines and immersive gameplay. While at the beginning the level of graphics might be held back by a lack of resources, they would nevertheless communicate attention to detail.

Name ideas:

Fenix

Reasoning: the phoenix is a mythical bird and hence would communicate the fantasy genre of the games. The bird itself is not only symbolic of rebirth but easily communicates power and beauty. The name itself would be an alteration of the Old English spelling 'phenix'.

Mer

Reasoning: the idea hatched from a shortening of the word 'mermaid' and the potential to use a mermaid or a like creature in the logo. Said creatures and water generally can convey the idea of mystery as well as seriousness and beauty.

Moon Games
Reasoning: the image of the moon has been often used in mystical and mythical contexts and often communicates the idea of beauty, seriousness and mystery.

Logo ideas:

(For the name "Fenix")

A fiery bird drawn in conjunction with the word "Fenix". Initial thought is that the bird would be flying over the name.

Another idea for the logo, without the name of the company, would be the shape of the phoenix in the background alongside a larger feather with the same theme of colours in the foreground.

(For the name "Mer")

Similar to the first version of the Fenix logo, but with a mermaid behind the name of the company, with a watery colour scheme.

(For the name "Moon Games")
The name of the company would be white with blueish tints and a "shimmering swish" in front, to indicate moon dust. This might create a problem in printing though, as the moon dust could obscure the text.
Two alternates I thought of would be to have the 'swish' above or below the text.


More ideas to come...