Rowles Media Photography

Banner Adverts with Photoshop

// November 18th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // Digital Marketing, Web Design

One of the best ways to advertise online is to make banner ads. I’m going to show you how to create animated banner ads using Adobe Photoshop CS3. This is a tutorial based on part of the shortcourse I teach at the University of Bolton. I have made a banner ad to advertise the Photoshop Enhanced shortcourse. http://data.bolton.ac.uk/dan/banner this banner advert uses animation to get the message across. Initially we will create a static advert and later we will introduce some animation.

We will be creating a banner advert to advertise Open Days at the university, or alternatively if you have specific theme you want to try then please do that. http://data.bolton.ac.uk/dan/banneradvert.zip Download this file it has the associated files.

First, open Photoshop and make a new document ‘File/New’ or [CTRL + N]
468 pixels wide and 60 pixels high.

These dimensions are the traditional size for banner ads. I want a 1-pixel line running around the edge of the ad, so make a new layer ‘Layer/New’ or [Shift + CTRL + N] and select the Rectangular Marquee Tool [M]. Now drag over the whole document so that the entire banner ad is selected. Pick a nice foreground colour [I used black] and use Edit > Stroke. Use a width of 1 pixel and under Location select “Inside”. Rename this layer ‘outline’ and make sure it is on top of all the other layers that you will be creating.

The beginnings of a banner ad.

Next we want to make sure people know who the advert is about. So we will include a logo. At this point you can download a logo off the internet or use the university logo provided. Go to ‘File/Open’ and select ‘logo.jpg’. You will notice that the logo is far to big to fit on your banner. So if you go to ‘Image/Image Size’ and give it a height of 40 pixels. This will make it small enough to fit nicely.

Now using the move tool you can drag and drop the logo on to your Banner Advert. This will place the logo on a new layer on top of your outline layer.

Now we need to fill in the background. For this we are going to use a gradient fill. A gradient fill is created using the tool that sits with the paint bucket tool.

To do this;

• First we need a new layer to put the fill on, so go to ‘Layer/New/Layer’. There is also a little icon at the bottom of the layers palette that will create a new layer too.
• Select the Gradient tool (Sits with the Paint Bucket).

Now you will have a new set of options along the top options bar, that look like this.

From here you can select different preset gradients, or create your own. Please click on the gradient dropdown box, to see your options.

Please experiment with different gradients, you can move the little colour icons along the colour bar at the bottom. Try changing the Gradient Type, this will give you the option to randomise the style.

Once you are happy with your selection, click ‘OK’ and on your new layer you need to;

• Click and Hold your left button down, towards the left side of your canvas.
• Drag out a line and let go of the mouse button at the point at which you want the gradient to finish.
• You probably won’t get this the way you want it straight away, just click CNTRL Z to undo, then try again.

Now you will find that everything has disappeared. This is because your new layer is on top. Simply click and drag your new layer underneath the ‘outline’ layer. Also rename the layer ‘Gradient’.

Now you will notice that the logo has a white strip across the top of it, in order to delete the white strip we are going to use the Magic Wand.

When you click with the magic wand it automatically selects everything similar, you can change its tolerance on the top bar, ’0′ tolerance will select only the exact same colour as you clicked. ’10′ will select a few shades around it too. Zoom in on the logo first and then use the magic wand to select the white area, ’0′ tolerance is probably best to begin with.

Click delete, and you will see something similar to the above. Then you can use the wand to select the thin white line that is still there and delete that.

There will be bits of white left behind. To delete these we need to deselect, just click off the edge of your canvas to do this. Then you need to zoom in a lot more, and then use the Eraser tool to delete the last bit. Your Eraser tool needs to be set to 1 pixel in size, with 0% hardness.

When using the eraser you will notice that it gradually deletes the white, it actually brings in different shades of blue, so you can leave some of those in. Zoom back out again (CTRL -) to see how it looks. You may have to zoom in again to just tweak it a bit more until you are happy.

Now for some text. Initially we need to say ‘Open Days’. So simply select the Text tool, click towards the left of your canvas and type ‘Open Days’. It’s up to you which font, colour, and size you use. Just make sure you have space for some other smaller text.

With my text I have also used the extra font options which appear if you click the last icon on the font options bar across the top.

This gives you more control, and allows you to change the tracking, leading and style. I have change the AV or tracking to bring the letters closer together.

Now you can add the rest of the text yourselves, something similar to this;

Now we can also add some imagery to this, and I have saved some artwork in a Banner Advert folder. You can use this or go on the Internet and download something.

For this tutorial I will open PavedCircle.jpg, so go to ‘File/Open’ and select that file, or one of your own choosing. At this point you will have two windows open in Photoshop. Whilst working in Photoshop you can have virtually as many windows as you like open. This is useful when creating complex designs or images. So now using the move tool you can drag and drop the photograph on to your banner advert. If you use PavedCircle your image will look like this;

So currently your image is too big for the space, also you may not want to use all of it, so we are going to do 2 things which will help you with working with other images. First we will resize it.

• With the move tool selected go to ‘Edit/Free Transform’ then hoolding down shift, click and hold one corner of the image and drag inwards to make it smaller.

• Double Click in the middle to Apply the changes, and then select the Eraser tool.
• Make the brush size of the Eraser fairly big, say about 150px, and make sure the Hardness is very low.
• Now single click near the people in the image, but not to close because you will delete them.
• Keep single clicking until you are happy with the effect.

You will notice that in the image above I have dragged the ‘Everybody is Welcome’ text above the image layer, and also I have applied a drop shadow just to make it stand out. The final thing to do to this is to sharpen the people walking slightly. We do this with a ‘Filter’. With the image layer selected go to ‘Filter/Sharpen/Unsharp Mask’.

This is now a finished static Banner Advert, obviously there is a lot more you could do, apply more filters, effects on the text etc. And please do experiment. Finally we will run through saving it.

Simply go to ‘File/Save’ to save the original with all your layers intact. Then to save a flattened JPEG ready for use in a webpage go to ‘File/Save for Web and Devices’.

The default settings will usually be fine, just ensure it is set to JPG, and the quality is set to about 70%. If you click ’4up’ at the top of the window it will present you with a number of options.

Finally hit save, and place in a webpage in Dreamweaver to test it.

Now it’s Your Turn

Right time for you to pick another subject. You could be advertising a new film, a new album by your favourite artist, an event, anything that might need advertising. Now create your own Banner advert, it needs to contain all the elements we have been working on. You can try different shapes aswell if you so wish. For more examples of Banner Adverts, just type ‘banner adverts’ into Google Images.

http://images.google.co.uk/

More Simple Animation Techniques with Photoshop CS3

// April 8th, 2008 // No Comments » // Tutorial

Colour animation, Filtered animation, motion animation and re-sizing animation. To begin with we will create a re-sizing animation.

Create a new file, 150 X 150 pixels on a transparent background.

Select the Elliptical Marquee tool.

In the options bar, go to the Style pull down at the top and select Fixed size.

Again, in the options bar, enter 150 px for Width and Height.

Click on your canvas to execute Marquee and drag until centered. Fill now with your choice of colour, then click outside the circle with the marquee tool in normal mode to deselect it.

Go to Layer > Duplicate Layer. (Repeat process until there are 4).

Making sure nothing is selected, Click on bottom layer 1 and go to Edit > Transform > Scale. Now in the top options bar set the width to 20% and click the lock icon next to it, this locks in the height aswell so it’s in proportion.

Now do the same to the other layers, but at 40%, 60% and 80%.
When finished, the Layers should look like this:

Now, We will work with the Animation palette. If not visible at present, Go to Window/Animation’.

Click the hidden menu on the upper right of the palette and Go to Make Frames from Layers.

Select frame 5 by Clicking on it and select the New Frame button. (A duplicate will be created.)

Next, in the Layers palette, Click top Layer and adjust the Opacity of the frame. (I used 43%, the object here is to lighten the image).

Set times. Click and hold on “0 sec” on each frame to set delay times.

You may now view your animation by pressing Play in the Animation palette.
Now try changing the timings and sizes until you are happy with your animation. Then save your original and “Save for web and Devices” to save your animated gif. To test insert on a webpage in Dreamweaver.

Motion and Tweening

For motion and tweening animation we will simply animate a circle around a canvas.

Create a new document 350px by 350px. Then using the paint brush just ‘colour in’ a circular shape on a new layer towards the top left of your camvas.

Now making sure your animation palette is set to ‘Frames’ click the new frame icon.

Then using the move tool, move the shape you have just created over to the right.

Create another new frame, and move the shape again to the bottom right.

Create a final frame and move the shape to the bottom left of your canvas.

Now if you play your animation you will see a really fast animation with your shape moving around the canvas. You can set this to loop if you click where it says ‘Once’ at the bottom left of your animation palette, and select ‘Forever’. Play again.

Tween It

Now we are going to add some tweening to your animation to smooth out the transitions between frames. Tweening is a process by which you select one or two frames (holding down shift) and then tell Photoshop how to animate between the two frames.

So to do this with our animated shape;

Select the first frame of your animation. Then go to the animation menu and select ‘Tween..’

The default settings that come up are fine as they are.

Please have a look at the different options, as you will see in the first drop down you can have a couple of layers selected as it gives the option ‘Selected Frames’. Also the parameters decide the kinds of animation to apply. In this instance Position is the only thing we are actually using, but it doesn’t matter that the others are switched on.

Now play your animation.

Now you need to do the same to your other original frames, the first one of which is now Frame 7. To navigate frame by frame you can use the icon next to the play button, which is the ‘Select Next Frame’ button.

Once complete your animation should be 19 frames.

Opacity Animation

This short exercise will illustrate how the opacity parameter works.

Create a new document 350px by 350px.

Use your paint brush to create a red circle.

Create a new layer and use your brush to create a green square.

Now in the animation palette;

Go to the animation menu and select ‘Make Frames from Layers’

Then select your first frame and select ‘Tween..’ from the menu.

Making sure Opacity is ticked (again it doesn’t matter if everything is ticked) Click ‘OK’ and play your animation.

Slideshow Effect

The final exercise will show you how to use layer effects aswell to manipulate how the animation is created. Open 2 jpg files of photographs into Photoshop. They can be ones we’ve used in previous tutorials, they can be saved from the web.

Now drag and drop one of the photographs on to the other, so they are both within the same document.

Now again in the animation palette select ‘Make Frames from Layers’.

Unlock your background layer (if it is locked), then create a duplicate of the first frame, by selecting the first frame and hitting the ‘New Frame’ icon.

Now with the new first frame selected, go to your layers palette and change the opacity of the visible layer to 0%. You will find that your second frame goes blank too, just click the frame and turn the opacity in the layer back up to 100%.

Now tween the first frame with the second.

On the new Frame 7 change ’0 Sec’ to ’2 Sec’.

You have now faded in your first slide.

Now create the same effect with Frame 8, duplicating it first, making the first ones opacity 0%, then making sure the second one is at 100%, then tween. Then finally set the final frame to 2 Seconds.

You could put some finishing touches on this animation, as it could fade out at the end before it begins again.

You have now covered all the frame based styles of animation.

Animation with Photoshop CS3

// April 8th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Tutorial

Frame based animation is what is used to create animated gifs. These are an image format that is used for really basic graphics that can have a transparent element. And also multiple frames, with each frame lasting along as you decide.

There is also Timeline based animation, but we will come on to that later.

Countdown Animation

We are going to be creating a basic animation of a countdown from 5 to 1. Each frame will last 1second long, and it will have a white background. The numbers will appear in the centre of a red circle as below.

You will see from the above graphic that the circle is constructed by using a shape layer, with an effect of ‘Stroke’ to give it the thick red outline.

There are also 5 number layers, and at the moment the only one switched on is the ’1′ layer.

So to begin I would like you to recreate the circle and number layers. Start with a New document at set it to 350 pixels wide and 350 pixels high.

Once you have something similar to the above its time to animate it!

Converting Layers into Frames

Once you have a series of frames it’s possible to tell Photoshop that you want to convert them into frames.

Go to ‘Window/Animation’ this will reveal the animation palette.

It should default to Animation [Frames] if not, there is a little icon in the bottom right of the animation palette that will switch it to Frames.

Then there is a hidden menu on the top right of the animation palette indicated by the below icon.

Click this icon and then select ‘Make Frames from Layers’.

Now you will notice that your background doesn’t go across all your layers. In order to sort this out you need to click each frame, and click the visibility icon on your background layer in the layers palette.

Now you will notice that your first frame of animation has no number in it. So you need to remove this frame. So simply single click on the first frame and then put it in the ‘Recycle Bin’, which is the same icon on the animation palette as it is for the Layers palette.

Press Play

Click the ‘Play’ icon on the animation palette and you will see that your animation plays really fast. So to slow it down;

Click your first frame, then hold down shift and click the final frame.

With them all selected go to the bottom of the first frame and click where it says ’0 Sec’.

Select ’1 Second’.

Now press play and you have your first animation complete. To save go to ‘File/Save’ to save the original psd file. Then go to ‘File/Save for Web and Devices’ to save the animated GIF. Select ‘gif’ from the file format dropdown, also try and reduce the number of colours used and see what you can get the file size down to without losing any quality. The image below shows that my example’s file size is 7.408K

Timeline Animation

Now we are going to use the same graphics to create the same animation, but with the ‘Timeline’ animation palette rather than ‘Frames’.

To start with we will use the history palette to go back to point just before you ‘Made Frames from Layers’. To open the history palette go to ‘Window/History’. It hit this icon next to the layers palette

Now on the Animation palette hit the Timeline icon at the bottom right of the window. Now we need to set the length of each frame. To do this we need to change how many frames per second are played. By default this will be set to 30 fps.

Go to the hidden menu at the top right of the animation palette and select ‘Document Settings’ from the menu.

Make the duration 5 Seconds, and the fps 1 second. Now we select the frames that we want to animate. In the animation palette select all the text layers by clicking the first one, holding down shift and then clicking the last one (or the top one). Then from the hidden menu select ‘Make Frames from Layers’.

The saving procedure is the same as previously, as you are still saving an animated gif.

How to create a Banner Advert with Photoshop CS3

// April 3rd, 2008 // No Comments » // Tutorial

Below is a tutorial delivered on my Interactive Graphics shortcourse. I have decided to post some of the course content on here, to give people a taste of what is involved.

One of the best ways to advertise online is to make banner ads. I’m going to show you how to create animated banner ads using Adobe Photoshop CS3. I have made a banner ad to advertise the Photoshop Enhanced shortcourse that I run at the university that I work at. http://data.bolton.ac.uk/dan/banner this banner advert uses animation to get the message across. In this tutorial we will create a static advert and later on I will post something on animation.

We will be creating a banner advert to advertise Open Days at the university, or alternatively if you have specific theme you want to try then please do that. http://data.bolton.ac.uk/dan/banneradvert.zip Download this file it has the associated files.

First, open Photoshop and make a new document ‘File/New’ or [CTRL + N] 468 pixels wide and 60 pixels high. These dimensions are the traditional size for banner ads. I want a 1-pixel line running around the edge of the ad, so make a new layer ‘Layer/New’ or [Shift + CTRL + N] and select the Rectangular Marquee Tool [M]. Now drag over the whole document so that the entire banner ad is selected. Pick a nice foreground colour [I used black] and use Edit > Stroke. Use a width of 1 pixel and under Location select “Inside”. Rename this layer ‘outline’ and make sure it is on top of all the other layers that you will be creating.

The beginnings of a banner ad.

Next we want to make sure people know who the advert is about. So we will include a logo. At this point you can download a logo off the internet or use the university logo provided.

Go to ‘File/Open’ and select ‘logo.jpg’. You will notice that the logo is far to big to fit on your banner. So if you go to ‘Image/Image Size’ and give it a height of 40 pixels. This will make it small enough to fit nicely.

Now using the move tool you can drag and drop the logo on to your Banner Advert. This will place the logo on a new layer on top of your outline layer.

Now we need to fill in the background. For this we are going to use a gradient fill. A gradient fill is created using the tool that sits with the paint bucket tool.

To do this;

First we need a new layer to put the fill on, so go to ‘Layer/New/Layer’. There is also a little icon at the bottom of the layers palette that will create a new layer too.

Select the Gradient tool (Sits with the Paint Bucket).

Now you will have a new set of options along the top options bar, that look like this.

From here you can select different preset gradients, or create your own. Please click on the gradient dropdown box, to see your options.

Please experiment with different gradients, you can move the little colour icons along the colour bar at the bottom. Try changing the Gradient Type, this will give you the option to randomise the style.

Once you are happy with your selection, click ‘OK’ and on your new layer you need to;

Click and Hold your left button down, towards the left side of your canvas.

Drag out a line and let go of the mouse button at the point at which you want the gradient to finish.

You probably won’t get this the way you want it straight away, just click CNTRL Z to undo, then try again.

Now you will find that everything has disappeared. This is because your new layer is on top. Simply click and drag your new layer underneath the ‘outline’ layer. Also rename the layer ‘Gradient’.

Now you will notice that the logo has a white strip across the top of it, in order to delete the white strip we are going to use the Magic Wand.

When you click with the magic wand it automatically selects everything similar, you can change its tolerance on the top bar, ’0′ tolerance will select only the exact same colour as you clicked. ’10′ will select a few shades around it too. Zoom in on the logo first and then use the magic wand to select the white area, ’0′ tolerance is probably best to begin with.

Click delete, and you will see something similar to the above. Then you can use the wand to select the thin white line that is still there and delete that.

There will be bits of white left behind. To delete these we need to deselect, just click off the edge of your canvas to do this. Then you need to zoom in a lot more, and then use the Eraser tool to delete the last bit. Your Eraser tool needs to be set to 1 pixel in size, with 0% hardness.

When using the eraser you will notice that it gradually deletes the white, it actually brings in different shades of blue, so you can leave some of those in. Zoom back out again (CTRL -) to see how it looks. You may have to zoom in again to just tweak it a bit more until you are happy.

Now for some text. Initially we need to say ‘Open Days’. So simply select the Text tool, click towards the left of your canvas and type ‘Open Days’. It’s up to you which font, colour, and size you use. Just make sure you have space for some other smaller text.

With my text I have also used the extra font options which appear if you click the last icon on the font options bar across the top.

This gives you more control, and allows you to change the tracking, leading and style. I have change the AV or tracking to bring the letters closer together.

Now you can add the rest of the text yourselves, something similar to this;

Now we can also add some imagery to this, and I have saved some artwork in a Banner Advert folder. You can use this or go on the Internet and download something.

For this tutorial I will open PavedCircle.jpg, so go to ‘File/Open’ and select that file, or one of your own choosing.

At this point you will have two windows open in Photoshop. Whilst working in Photoshop you can have virtually as many windows as you like open. This is useful when creating complex designs or images.

So now using the move tool you can drag and drop the photograph on to your banner advert. If you use PavedCircle your image will look like this;

So currently your image is too big for the space, also you may not want to use all of it, so we are going to do 2 things which will help you with working with other images. First we will resize it.

With the move tool selected go to ‘Edit/Free Transform’ then hoolding down shift, click and hold one corner of the image and drag inwards to make it smaller.

Double Click in the middle to Apply the changes, and then select the Eraser tool.

Make the brush size of the Eraser fairly big, say about 150px, and make sure the Hardness is very low.

Now single click near the people in the image, but not to close because you will delete them.

Keep single clicking until you are happy with the effect.

You will notice that in the image above I have dragged the ‘Everybody is Welcome’ text above the image layer, and also I have applied a drop shadow just to make it stand out. The final thing to do to this is to sharpen the people walking slightly. We do this with a ‘Filter’. With the image layer selected go to ‘Filter/Sharpen/Unsharp Mask’.

This is now a finished static Banner Advert, obviously there is a lot more you could do, apply more filters, effects on the text etc. And please do experiment. Finally we will run through saving it.

Simply go to ‘File/Save’ to save the original with all your layers intact. Then to save a flattened JPEG ready for use in a webpage go to ‘File/Save for Web and Devices’.

The default settings will usually be fine, just ensure it is set to JPG, and the quality is set to about 70%. If you click ’4up’ at the top of the window it will present you with a number of options.

Finally hit save, and place in a webpage in Dreamweaver to test it.

Now it’s Your Turn

Right time for you to pick another subject. You could be advertising a new film, a new album by your favourite artist, an event, anything that might need advertising.

Now create your own Banner advert, it needs to contain all the elements we have been working on. You can try different shapes aswell if you so wish. For more examples of Banner Adverts, just type ‘banner adverts’ into Google Images.

http://images.google.co.uk/

Depth of Field Effect

// February 19th, 2008 // No Comments » // Tutorial

In this little tutorial we are going to create what is sometimes refered to as a fake depth of field effect. Basically we are going to blur the background of an image using a lens blur effect. This tutorial forms part of a shortcourse that I deliver called ‘Photoshop – Enhanced’, although sometimes I add it on to ‘Photoshop – The Basics’ depends on how fast the delegates are catching on!

Firstly we need to create a selection based on the background of an image. Open Blur Masking original. Now in order to select the background we need to use a combination of the magic wand tool, and the lasso. This requires some patience but the effect will be worth it.

Set the tolerance quite high, about 40 on the magic wand and click on area of background, then to select more hold down the shift key. You may find that you select to much, when this happens select the lasso tool, hold down Alt and lasso the areas you want to deselect.

Once you have this all selected go to ‘Select / Save Selection’. In the pop up window select name and name your selection ‘background’. This will now appear in the channels palette as a new channel. Now we are going to create another channel, this time from within the channel palette, select the new channel icon (same as the new layer icon).  

Now select the gradient tool and and fill the canvas with a gradient fill.The gradient fill will be black and white. It needs to start with black at the bottom of the image as above.  Now we have two new channels which we now need to combine. Doing this requires us to open the Calculations window. This is at ‘Image / Calculations’.      

Above are the settings you need to apply, this calculations window allows you merge two images, layers, or channels together from any two psd files. In this case our two sources are from the same PSD file ‘blurmasking.psd’, we want to merge them, and the two sources are channel ’Gradient’, and channel ‘background’. Finally we want the result to be a ‘New Channel’. Now we can use this new channel as the basis for the lens blur effect. Now making sure you have your image layer selected go to ‘Filter / Blur / Lens Blur’. 

The new window that appears is the lens blur options window. There are many settings you can play with and feel free to have a go. But the main thing you need to do is set the ‘Depth Map’ source to the merged channel you have created, to select it click on the dropdown menu next to  source and select ‘alpha 1’. This will change the mostly blurred preview to a nicely blurred background, and sharp subject.

Your finished product should look something like the below image.