In this screen cast tutorial I cover how to change a persons eye color using Photoshop CS4. The tutorial was creating using Photoshop CS4 for Mac but you should be able to follow along on a Windows version of Photoshop as well, without issues.

Below is the before and after of what we will be doing in Photoshop

 

For your reference I also have the original image I was working with below, all you have to do is right click and save the image to your desktop, if you want to follow along with the tutorial using the same image.

 

Now for the tutorial, I have uploaded this tutorial to youtube and linked to it here. Please let me know if you have any questions in regards to the tutorial. I’d also like to add that if anyone has any particular requests for tutorials, just leave a comment with your suggestion. Feedback is always appreciated

Here’s a quick Photoshop Tutorial on how to make a gradient from A to Z, screen cast style

Hope you guys enjoy it, its my very first screen cast. I’m hoping to make a lot of these little tutorials, what I would like is for all the readers to submit requests for tutorials and once a week I’ll pick a suggestion and we’ll call it the tutorial of the week. What do you guys think ? Read more

In this Photoshop text effects tutorial, we’re going to create a simple text reflection effect. This effect has been used everywhere in advertising, and as we’ll see, it’s very easy to do. When we’re done you’ll end up with something like this.

Step 1: Create A New Photoshop Document

Create a new blank Photoshop document by going up to the File menu at the top of screen and choosing New. Enter the dimensions you need for your document. For this tutorial, I’m going to enter 600 pixels for my document’s Width, and 200 pixels for the Height, and a Resolution of 96 pixels/inch. Click OK when you’re done to exit out of the dialog box. Your new blank document will appear on your screen:

 

Step 2: Set The Background Color

You can make the background color anything you like. I chose to make mine black, why ? because reflections look good with a black background. Alright, lets do it… In the Layers Panel, Double Click on the Background Layer. You’ll get a pop-up, Click on OK

Here’s what we just did, we created an editable Layer from the background layer. Now we need to change the background color from white to black.To do this select the Paint Bucket Tooland make sure that your foreground color is set to black and then click inside of the white rectangle, your background color should now be black.

 

Step 3: The Main Text 

 

Now that we have our background color set, we can move on to type some text that we want to use for our reflection. I chose to type chris-fletcher.com I used the font Myriad Pro with a point size of 36 and a blue shaded color with a Regular Style.

To do this, select the Text Tool and Open the Character Window, set your font type, style, size, etc… You can copy my settings if you like.

 

 

Once you have your text setup the way you like you can click anywhere inside the black rectangle. A new layer will automatically be created and a typing cursor will be placed around the area where you clicked. You can now being to type.

 

 

 

If you’ve done everything according to the tutorial so far you should have something that resembles the image to the right. The next step will cover duplicating the Text Layer that we just created as well as flipping it and correctly positioning it.

 

 

Step 4: Duplicating, Rotating, and Positioning

The first thing we need to do is duplicate the text layer we just created. For that we need to right click ( Control Click for a Mac ) on the Text Layer and then click on Duplicate Layer. You’ll get a pop-up, click on OK. The new duplicated Layer should be highlighted by default, if it isn’t then you need to select it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now we need to modify this layer and by modify I mean we need to Flip it Vertically. To do this make sure the layer is selected then click on Edit -> Transform -> Flip Vertical

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You should now have something similar to the image below.

 

What we need to do now is move the duplicated layer down below the original layer. The move tool should be selected by default. If it isn’t then you need to select it. Make sure that the duplicated layer is still highlighted then start pressing the down arrow until you have something similar to the below.

Yay, we are done with Step 4 of the Tutorial, In Step 5 we will cover the importance of masking and how we can use it to create the reflection effect.

 

Step 5: Masking To Create The Reflection

The first thing we need to do is make sure that our Duplicated Layer is still highlighted / selected. After you’ve verified that the correct Layer is selected you can click on the Mask icon. Which looks like this

You then need to select the Gradient Tool from the toolbar.

After you’ve selected the Gradient Tool, move your mouse cursor to the middle right in between the 2 layers. Click and draw a line down, almost all the way to the end of the text. Sort of like this.

That should do it, you should now have a reflection similar to the one below. I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial and that it was helpful. If you have any questions or there is something you didn’t understand, feel free to leave a comment. I also accept requests for tutorials if there is something you’d like to know how to do, just ask.

 

You can download the PSD file here. Photoshop Reflections Tutorial

There are many different reasons you would want to make a DVD Cover in Photoshop. Most people just get out a Sharpie and write the name of whatever is on the DVD on the DVD itself and throw it into a CD / DVD folder. This tutorial is not for these types of people, this tutorial is for the few of us who appreciate artwork and like to show of our DVD collection.

Before I start with this tutorial, let me point out that there is a great website, http://cdcovers.cc

This website has a DVD cover for just about every movie ever released on DVD, just download the cover and print it out, but what about those home movies that you need a cover for ? What if you don’t like a certain cover and want a custom one. That’s where my tutorial comes in.

Photoshop just happens to be the perfect tool to create DVD Covers, DVD Labels, Inserts, etc…

Let’s start with the Template, please go ahead and download the following template so that you can follow along with the tutorial.

• DVD Cover Template

Once you have the template downloaded you can proceed to open Photoshop. Let’s start with the DVD Cover Template.

Make A DVD Cover In Photoshop

Open Photoshop and then open the DVD_Cover_Template.psd file. If you’ve ever worked with Photoshop then you probably know all about layers. If you haven’t then no worries. This tutorial will walk you through what you need to know to successfully make a DVD Cover In Photoshop. Once you have opened the DVD_Cover_Template.psd file you should see something similar to the illustration below.

 

 

Notice the Layers in this Template file, you should see 3 Layers: Leave this Layer, Hide This Layer Guide, and Background. We will be creating some new layers.

 

 

Click and hold on the Text Tool Icon it looks like this –  , this should bring up a drop down similar to the illustration below.

 

Select the Vertical Type Tool. Once you have the tool selected, make sure that Layer 1 is still highlighted. Then click on the Spine region of the DVD Cover Template. You should now have something similar to the illustration below. You may have also noticed that a new layer has been automatically created with a truncated version of the text that we wrote in the Spine. Each time you click on an area of the template with the text tool a new layer will be created, which is exactly what we want since this will make positioning, styling, etc… much easier.

 

 

Ok, so now that we have the spine of our DVD Cover created we can move on to the front of the DVD Cover. In this tutorial I will not cover artwork or how to style text and make it look all fancy, that part is completely up to you to play with and figure out.

Click back and hold on the Text Tool again and select Horizontal Type Tool and then go ahead and click on the right side of the template and type some text. When you are finished typing the Title go ahead and type some more text just keep clicking on different areas of the Template. When you are done with the right side you can proceed to the left / back side of the template. When you are all done with your typing you might have something similar to the below.

 

 

Are you all done yet ? Hmm… what should we do now ? Oh yeah, we need to save the cover, in my opinion it is best to save it as a jpg and the best way to do that is as follows. Before we save, we should get rid of the guides since they will make our cover look ugly. Scroll through your layers and find the Hide This Guide Layer. You should see an eye next to it on the left. Click on the Eye and the layer disappears. Now we can Save, yay !!

 

 

 

1. File -> Save For Web & Devices
2. Preset on the top right, select JPEG High
3. Click Save and choose a filename and location.
4. Click Save

 

 

 

After the Save has completed you can close Photoshop. It will ask you to Save the file, be sure to NOT save the template so that you can use it again for future covers. Now all you need to do is open the JPEG file and print it and Voila, your very own DVD Cover.

Hopefully you’ve learned something from this tutorial and aren’t scratching your head. I have a tendency to skip over obvious things sometimes. If anyone has any questions about something that I may have left out, please comment and let me know.