Some More Creations...Walls!

[gvblake22]

Lovin' the new sig/avatar! You are very handy in Photoshop! How exactly do you do the wavy gradients like that? Looks awesome!!!

[[Dr. V]]

Thanks blake!

Rasterize a gradient layer, then go nuts with transforming it. Once rasterized, the gradient no longer has gradient properties. It's a raw image, and can be manipulated in any way.

Happy curving!

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by ST!X

Thanks blake!

Rasterize a gradient layer, then go nuts with transforming it. Once rasterized, the gradient no longer has gradient properties. It's a raw image, and can be manipulated in any way.

Happy curving!

hmmmm, I think I get what you are saying, but not. You'll have to dumb it down a little!
I know what you mean by rasterizing the layer, but I still don't understand how to get those curves and stuff in there...

I think you could write a great "tips and tricks" guide for Photoshop and have a chance at that $50 Newegg gift certificate.

[[Dr. V]]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

hmmmm, I think I get what you are saying, but not. You'll have to dumb it down a little!
I know what you mean by rasterizing the layer, but I still don't understand how to get those curves and stuff in there...

I think you could write a great "tips and tricks" guide for Photoshop and have a chance at that $50 Newegg gift certificate.

Ooo that'd be interesting. As a quickie...

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Select the layer on top of which you want your base gradient (base being the one you want to curve). Choose your gradient (safe to do one band of colour in the middle to start), and then check out how it looks. In my sig, i have 2 gradients to make the black/red background, and then the 3rd one which i edited, and the 4th one swooping over the 3rd one (as you can see). We'll deal with one for now.

Right now, let's make a solid coloured background. I trust you know how to select the background layer and fill it with black, so do that. Then, make the gradient colours WHITE@0%, WHITE@50%, and WHITE@100%. Use 3 opacity scalers, make the opacity 0% at 0%, make it 100% at 50%, and make it 0% at 100% (read it a few times, you'll understand). You'll have a black background, and a white band right through the middle of it.

From the layers menu on the right-hand side, RIGHT-CLICK the gradient layer you just made, and click "Rasterize Layer". Now the layer is a raw image, no more editable gradient properties.

Choose the "select" tool (the one with the dotted square) from the TOOLS toolbar (left hand side unless you moved it around). Making sure the newly rasterized gradient layer is selected, RIGHT-CLICK the actual canvas itself, and click "Free Transform Path". A rectangle will appear surrounding the canvas edge-to-edge. Once this is there, right click in that selected field, and click "Warp". Now, you have many little dots that you can click on and drag arount. You can do anything here - stretch it, "warp" it (yep, pun intended), completely "transform it freely" (yep, pun intended again), and there are many options.

After you're happy with your transformation, click on the "Move" (or any other) tool, and it will ask you to "Apply", "Don't Apply", or "Cancel" (this applies to your recent transformation of the layer). Click "Apply". Now, observe. Do you like it? Great. Do you not like it? Great. Click Ctl+Alt+Z to undo that entire transformation, not little by little the steps you took, the entire transformation will be "undoed" or reversed.

HAPPY CURVING!!!

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Wow...given that I type 100+ WPM, that took a while. I'd hate to see how long an entire general Photohop tut would take. I'll start working on it soon

[gvblake22]

AAAHHHHHAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!! The warp tool, that's what I didn't know existed! Great info there, and I did have to read your gradient color/opacity stop walkthrough a couple times, but it made sense once I had the gradient window open in front of me. Thanks ST!X!!!!!!!

EDIT:
Ok, problem. When go to rasterize the gradient layer, the rasterize option is grayed out. What am I doing wrong?

EDIT #2:
I did manage to get something. I just flattened the image, then selected the entire image, right clicked, free transform, then right click, warp...

[[Dr. V]]

About the flattening, you don't have to do that.

When you create the gradient in Photoshop CS2 just make a new layer on top of the background layer, and when you apply the gradient it will be automatically Rasterized, so you can just free transform it and you're on your way. My mini-tutorial was written for CS3.

True homage to HL! The new sig and avatar set is born!

It's a play on the last one. This avatar is better (the modified white stripe), and the sig...well the sig is obvious!

P.S. As for the "Walls" - they're coming along, it may be a little while 'til I'm able to post my next one, but I'll be making a few more.

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by ST!X

P.S. As for the "Walls" - they're coming along, it may be a little while 'til I'm able to post my next one, but I'll be making a few more.

Great, looking forward to the new creations!

[[Dr. V]]

Only to honor the new HL.

Like the sig?

What's better - that or "It Most Definitely Tastes Like Chicken!"

I couldn't decide.

[gvblake22]

If I had to pick...
"It Most Definitely Tastes Like Chicken!"

[[Dr. V]]

I like the ring to that one as well.