Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Sketchbook Wallpapers

To make background more interesting, open Effects menu - Distort - Lens correction, and set Vignette amount to about -30..35.

I could draw sheet of notebook paper using vector tools, but I decided to take actual sheet and scan it. Because paper is white, I put it under black book and scanned this way.

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Open scanned image in Photoshop, open Levels (Ctrl-L), move black triangle to the right as shown here, and white rectangle to the left. Paper should become completely white (no light grey) and background completely black.

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Invert image (Ctrl-I). Then, if your image is "flattened" (there is only one layer called Background) you should "un-flatten" it. To do it, double click Background layer and click OK. It should be claled Layer 0 now. Now, this layer can contain transparency (we will need it now).

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Remove white from the image. Use the following commands: - Ctrl-A (select all) - Ctrl-C (copy) - Q (enter quick mask) - Ctrl-V (paste) - Q (quit quick mask) - Del (delete selection) - Ctrl-D (deselect) Then use Ctrl-U (Hue/Saturation window) and set Lightness to -100.

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Invert image - our paper is white again. Copy and paste it to our original file (with wooden background).

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If you prefer, you can use the same Hue/Saturation window (Ctrl-U) to make paper beige color (use Colorize checkbox for that).

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Next step is to create shadow that will make paper edges "flow" above the wood a bit. Duplicate layer with paper, make it black (Ctrl-U, lightness = - 100). Open Edit menu - Transform - Warp. On Toolbar, set Warp mode to Arch, and Bend = 2.

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Apply a little Gaussian blur (Effects menu - Blur - Gaussian blur) with radius = 1-2 px. Set layer mode to Soft light or Overlay.

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In Layers palette, move layer with shadow under layer with paper. Select layer with paper and make similar transform, but warp the other side (Edit - Transform - Warp): Warp = Arch, Bend = -1 or -2.

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Find appropriate texture for paper. This is texture I have in my stock images storage.

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Paste it in new layer above layer with paper...

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... and Create Clipping Mask (Ctrl-Shift-G), from Layer menu.

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Scan the sketch, paste it into new layer right after layer with paper texture.

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Set layer mode to Multiply, then Transform (Ctrl-T) as needed - resize and rotate.

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Finally, Create Clipping Mask again (Ctrl-Shift-G or from Layer menu). That's all!

Sketchbook Wallpapers Tutorial: Final Result