Text In Stitches

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Lets go ahead and begin by opening a new document in Photoshop. Mine is 540×300 pixels at 72ppi. Since stitching on a plain white canvas is a little silly, lets go ahead and spice up the Background layer with a little texture. By default the Background layer in any new Photoshop document is locked, so lets go ahead and double-click on the Background layer in the Layers palette to bring up the Layer Properties dialog box. Simply rename the layer or name it Background once again and hit OK to unlock the layer.
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Now that our Background layer is unlocked we’re going to add a Pattern Overlay Layer Style to it which will give us a quick and easy denim background to work with. Control-Click (PC: Right-Click) on the Background layer in the Layers palette and choose Blending Options from the menu. This will bring up the Layer Styles dialog box. Click on the Pattern Overlay text in the left column. (You must click on the text and not on the checkbox. Clicking the checkbox will turn the style ON but it won’t give you the options for the style, so it is important to click on the text so we can modify the Pattern Overlay style options.) Next we need to load a new set of Patterns into the Pattern Picker. Click on the Pattern swatch to reveal the Pattern Picker, then click the little circle with the arrow in it at the top right corner of the picker. Choose "Patterns 2" from the list and click OK to load the new pattern set into the Pattern Picker. Now simply click on the Denim swatch which is the 4th pattern in the set and click OK to close the Layer Styles dialog box and commit the style to the layer. Yes, I know, this graphic is a mess… but hopefully it gets the point across.
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You should now have a background full of denim and a layer style icon in the Background layer of the Layers palette.
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It’s now time to add some text to our document. Press the D key to reset the foreground color to black, then press the T key to invoke the Type tool. Click on the stage to place the cursor and type some text onto it. Notice that when you added the text that Photoshop automatically added a new layer for it. (*note: To commit the text you can either press the Enter key on the 10-key corner of your standard keyboard or click the Check-Mark in the Text Tool options bar at the top of Photoshop.)
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Now that our text is created and while we still have the Type tool chosen we need to create an outline path of the letters. Control-Click (PC: Right-Click) on the text on the stage and choose Create Work Path from the menu. This will create a white outline around each letter indicating that you’ve created a work path (obviously) which we will use later in the lesson to stitch around.
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Add a new layer above your text by clicking the Add New Layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette or by using the keyboard shortcut Command-Option-Shift-N (PC: Ctrl-Alt-Shift-N). Rename the layer by Double-Clicking on the layers name in the Layers palette. I called this new layer Stitches.
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Now it’s time to setup everything in preparation for the stitching, and the first thing we need to do is load the stitching brush set into our Brushes palette. If you haven’t downloaded them yet you’ll want to do it now by clicking HERE. Save the brush set to your desktop or someplace you’ll remember when we go looking for them. Press the B key to invoke the Brush tool, then bring up the Brushes palette by choosing Window>Brushes from Photoshop’s main menu. In the upper right hand corner of the Brushes palette, click on the options icon and choose Load Brushes from the menu. Navigate to the brush stitches brush set that you just downloaded to your hard drive and click Load. You will then be asked if you want to Append the brushes to the end of your current brushes or if you want to replace the existing brushes by clicking OK. For my example I’m going to replace my existing brushes, but either option works fine.
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Now that the brush set has been loaded into the Brush Picker lets go ahead and select the V-shaped brush. We’ll need to make a few adjustments to the settings in the Brushes palette for this brush to make it work the way we want. First off lets reduce the size of the brush to around 8 pixels in the Diameter setting then make sure the Spacing checkbox is checked and that the spacing is set to around 80%. The spacing change makes the V’s overlap enough to look like interlocking stitches.
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While still in the Brushes palette click down to the Shape Dynamics link on in the menu on the left and make sure that the Angle Jitter control is set to Direction. This will make the brush rotate as it goes around the corners to the different sides of our letters.
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At last it’s time to make the magic happen. Put on your wizard hat and swap the foreground and background colors by pressing the X key (white should now be showing as the foreground color at the bottom of the Tools palette). Press the P key to switch to the Pen tool and then Command-Click (PC: Right-Click) anywhere on that little white outline that is the Path around the text. Choose "Stroke Path" from the menu, make sure that "Brush" is selected from the drop-down menu and that the Simulate Pressure checkbox is un-checked then click OK. You’ll now see that the brush we chose has been used to stroke the entire path of the text. Since we’re done with the path now you can either click over to the Paths tab in the Layers palette and delete it, or simply press Command-H (PC: Ctrl-H) to hid it.
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To make the stitches a little more realistic lets go ahead and add a few layer styles to the Stitches layer. Just like we did in Step #1 lets Command-Click (PC: Right-Click) on the Stitches layer and choose Blending Options. Now add a Drop Shadow and a Bevel and Emboss as shown below, be sure to check each setting to make sure you haven’t missed anything then click OK. The slight Bevel and Emboss will add a little more dimension to the thread while the Drop Shadow will add a touch of shading around the edges.
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Before we move on let me show you a cool little trick to change the background color. Since the background is a preset color pattern and not an overlay we can’t just change an underlying layer color so we have to resort to other methods. Click on the Background layer in the Layers palette to make it the active working layer. Now lets add an adjustment layer by clicking on the Create A New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette (it’s the circle with half black and half white), choose Hue/Saturation and use these settings (or any that look pretty to you).
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The last little bit of adjustment I did was to click over to the Text layer in the Layers palette and change it’s Blend Mode to Multiply and it’s Fill opacity to 70%. By doing this we allow a little of the denim texture to come through onto our black letters adding a little depth and realism. (*note: You could also paste some real fabric into a layer above the Text layer and use a clipping mask to add even more coolness.)
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Anytime you’re using a text to create this effect you will always have an outline of the lettering, but what if you just want to stitch letters? Well, if you’ve got a little experience with the Pen tool you can apply this same technique to any number of paths you’ve drawn yourself. Below I’ve used the pen tool to draw some text.
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Then I switched to the Brush tool, lowered the diameter of the brush to 6 pixels, switched back to the Pen tool and Stroked the path just like we did back in Step 10. I then added the same Bevel & Emboss and Drop shadow to this new layer of stitches as we did to the original text.
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In my final image I simply embellished on the techniques we’ve learned. Check out the .PSD download to view all my final adjustments!

Changing Color

Open the document you want to change the color of. Remember to make a back up of the original.

Select the area of color that you wish to alter, in this case, the girl's T-Shirt. Use a combination of the Lasso and Extract tools.

To make an accurate selection, zoom in on the image, to about 800%, then select the polygonal lasso tool.

With the polygonal lasso tool, make your selection by clicking around the target's edges.

Continue clicking around the edges until you come back to the beginning to end the loop. If you have multiple area you want to select, then hold down SHIFT then start making another selection, this will add the next selection to your current one.

Dont worry too much if you accidently go outside or select unwanted area. We can fix this later.

Once you have your selection, zoom back to 100%.

Now click on the quick mask button, this is the right button located just below the colors.

Now you will see something similar to mine below, your selected area in normal colors, and the rest (un selected area) in transparent red. This is quick mask mode.

Now make sure your colors are set to black and white, select the "paint brush" tool and set the brush size to 13 hard edge.

Now if you "paint" over your image with BLACK, it adds to the selection, and if you paint in WHITE, it DELETE from the selection. with this in mind, zoom in on the image and find spots that you missed or are not accurate and paint accordingly.

if you look at my image below, my selection using the lasso tool was not perfect, so I use the brush tool now, and color in where I missed.

Tip: press "X" to change alternate the black and white colors.

If the brush size is too big, change it to smaller brush to get into tight areas. But remember to use hard edge brushes, as soft edge will give you inaccurate results.

This is how it look after I paint over the area with black.

Do this for your whole image to get accurate selection.

Once you think you're done, click on the NORMAL mode button (the LEFT button next to the quick mask mode).

This is how it should look now, a sharp accurate selection around my targetted area. If you see that you missed a spot, just go back to quick mask mode to fix it.

Now create a new Adjustment layer for Hue and Saturation.

Play around with the Hue and Saturation sliders to get the desired colors. You can also try turning on the colorize on and off to see the different effects.

The important thing to remember when changing tonal information is not to get too carried away - it's all too easy to lose shadow tones and the texture of the fabric. Subtle adjustments of the sliders will help retain the grain in the fabric as well as ensuring that shadows look realistic.

Another way to change color of the selection is using variations function Image->Adjustments->Variation.

This enables you to easily add shades of colour to highlights, midtones or shadows and is a useful means of creating new tones. Unfortunately, it lacks the subtlety of other methods.

Trendy Circle Brush in Photoshop

There's a design trend that's blown up over the past year and it's based around one simple shape - the circle. Not just one circle, though, lots of them. In fact, it's circles within circles. After looking at these designs at least a 100 times, it hit me that we could do this with a custom brush in Photoshop and create some really cool effects. So here goes:

1. Create a new document

Let's start off by creating a brand-new blank document (File>New). If you want to follow along, make your document 1000x1000 pixels at 72 ppi. One thing to remember here is that it's always good to start off a little larger then you'd ever want to use this brush. You can always reduce the size of the brush later.

2. Draw a circle

Select the Ellipse tool from the Toolbox (it's grouped with the Shape tools). Make sure you have the Shape Layers option selected at the top left of the screen in the Options Bar. Press D to set your Foreground color to black and draw a circle on the canvas. To constrain the ellipse to a perfect circle, hold down the Shift key as you draw.

3. Duplicate and transform shape layer

Duplicate the shape layer by pressing Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J). Double-click on the duplicated shape layer's thumbnail in the Layers panel, change the color to white in the Color Picker, and click OK. Now we need to make this circle smaller, so click the Edit menu and choose Free Transform Path. Hold down Option-Shift (PC: Alt-Shift) and drag one of the corner handles inward to make the new copy smaller. Keep dragging until you have what appears to be a thick black stroke around the white circle. Press Enter when you're done, to commit the transformation.

4. Create additional circles

Repeat Step 3 a bunch of times, each time varying how much you decrease the size of the circle as well as the color. Usually, I switch between black and white, but you can also try using shades of gray. Just make sure that it's either black, white, or gray, as colors won't work when creating a custom brush.

5. Define circle as a brush

We now have the makings of our circular design element but it's several layers, which would be a pain if we wanted to add a lot of these to an image. Let's turn this into a brush so we can paint it on quickly. Select the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) and drag a square selection around the circle, then click the Edit menu and choose Define Brush Preset. (Note: If Define Brush Preset is grayed out, click on another layer in the Layers panel to activate the command.) Give your brush a descriptive name and click OK to save it.

6. Create new file; fill background

Okay, at this point we've got a new brush and now we'll use it in an image. First, create a new document. As ours is going to be a banner for a website, we'll make it 800 pixels in Width and 150 pixels in Height (72 ppi). Next, click on your Foreground color swatch and in the Color Picker, set your color to R:225, G:224, and B:206, then click OK. Press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill the Background layer with that color.

7. Select your new brush

Now we get to the fun part - our brush. We'll need the Brushes panel for this, so switch to the Brush tool (B), then click the Window menu, and choose Brushes to open it. On the top-left side, click on the words "Brush Tip Shape." Then, scroll through the list on the right to find the Circle Brush you just created. Change the Diameter setting to 65 px and the Spacing setting to 75%. Now click on the words "Shape Dynamics" to see those settings. Change your Size Jitter setting to 60%.

8. Set scattering and color dynamics

Click on the word "Scattering" from the list on the left. Change the Scatter setting to 300%. Finally, click on the words "Color Dynamics" and set both Foreground/Background Jitter and Saturation Jitter to 50% (make sure everything else is set to 0%). You're done in the Brushes panel for now and all that's left is to set your Foreground color to R:84, G:109, and B:131 and your Background color to R:0, G:45, and B:84 (you can pick your own colors here if you want).

9. Paint with your new brush

Before you start painting with the brush, go ahead and click the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel to create a new blank layer; that way all of our brushing stays off the Background layer. Now just click with your mouse and start dragging across your image. You'll see the circles appear randomly scattered and in different sizes wherever you paint. The color even changes slightly because you turned on Color Dynamics and adjusted the Foreground/Background Jitter. This tells your brush to vary between your current Foreground and Background colors. Cool, huh?

10. Place other graphical elements

Put your final elements into the image. Here, we've added a photo on the right as well as some text. To change things up a bit, we've also created a few different brushes using Steps 1-5 and varying the circle transformations for different styles (thick lines and thin ones). Finally, we used an ornamental scroll shape in the background from www.iStockphoto.com (file number 4619009).

Metallic Tubes and Wires

This is an advanced Photoshop tutorial. Do not attempt this if you are not sufficient with the basic functions of the Photoshop Interface. My Lighting Effects tutorial is recommended reading, so if you don't have experience with the Photoshop Lighting Effects filter.

1. Start with a new image, 250x250 pixels. Select a dark gray as the foreground color. Create a new layer, and with the Pen or Paintbrush tool, draw a wire shaped line on it, 15 pixels thick.

Gradual curves look nice. This may take a few tries to get right.

Name the layer Wire.

2. Make a copy of Wire, by dragging it onto the New Layer button. Double click on the new layer, and rename it Cut Wire.

Hide the original layer Wire, by clicking on it's eye icon in the Layers window. We'll use that layer later on.

Now, grab the Eraser tool, set the brush size to about 5 pixels, and cut the line up.

3. Hold down Ctrl, and click on the hidden Wire layer in the Layers window.

This will create a selection out of the layer Wire's transparency

Next, go to the Channels window, and click the Save selection as channel button .

Select the new Channel in the Channels window, then double click on it and rename it Wire Bevel.

4. Gaussian Blur the selection by 9 pixels, then by 6 pixels, then by 3 pixels, and finally 1 pixel.

AutoLevels Ctrl+Shift+L, the selection.

Then, go back to the Layers window, hold down Ctrl and click on the Cut Wire layer to select it's transparency. Return to the Channels window, click on Wire Bevel, press D to reset colors, invert selection Ctrl+Shift+I, and finally clear the selection. Del

Deselect. Ctrl+D

5. Go back to the Layers window, and select the Cut Wire layer.

Filter > Render > Lighting Effects...

Click on the image to the left to enlarge.

Create a white Directional light, and aim it down, from the top. Then, create a blue directional light, shining up, from the bottom.

Set the Properties to:
Gloss: 100 (Shiny)
Material: -100 (Plastic)
Exposure: 39
Ambience: -21

Set the Texture Channel onto Wire Bevel, and the height to 15.

Now, tweak the positioning and direction of the lights to achieve the desired effect.

6. Now, click on the hidden Wire layer to expose it. Click on it again holding down Ctrl, to create the selection.

To make the line 1 pixel thinner, invert the selection Ctrl+Shift+I, go Select > Modify > Expand... 1 pixel, and clear the selection Del, and Deselect Ctrl+D.

Filter > Render > Lighting Effects...

And set the Texture Channel to Wire Transparency.

Hit OK, add a dropshadow, and you're finished!