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PHOTOSHOP BASIC INSTINCTS
DIGGING deeper, baby.
10/30/2003
PAGES: 1 2

 

Use GRIDS, GUIDES and RULERS

Let's resurface for a while. The first two tips are quite heavy and we are slowly moving away from Photoshop. The photoshop GRIDS and RULERS and other form of guides are of a big help especially these days that most of your 20/20 vision have been polluted with too much porn, violence, non-sense and dinosaurs already.

Photoshop rulers and grids are some of the best inventions in this world next to properly-used signal lights, disciplined-driver-driven lowered cars minus the 'boom-boom' R/B music and other number of things above it.

Traffic lights (especially the one in E. Rod avenue) is layers behind it. Side by side with some corrupt traffic enforcers who is best when fed to and devoured by that solar storm.


 

THE PEN is mightier than the mouse+keyboard+CPU combined

It has been mightier than the excalibur sword then, and if the pen hath existed during the Tolkien era, Frodo and Sam need not take that gruesome journey into Mordor, Gandalf

would not lose his friendship with Saruman and probably Arwen would remain single up to this day. (Wait a minute... there were pens already during those days)

In the age of the digital world... the pen has held on to its MIGHT. The pen has changed a lot in this world since time knows when and that CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT hyperthreaded into two 3.0GHz each (and its descendants), has just started changing the world less than half a century. It's not even catching up yet and the pen is playing poker and chess while waiting. Plus you don't need batteries and electricity to move that pen. Humans maybe... but not the pen.

If you still don't feel like using the pen, you can use EDITPAD or other applications to jot down your 'photoshop configurations'. The amount of bevel/emboss applied. How opaque things are... how much dark the shadows are... the list goes on. It would even make things easier for you if you're planning to add the same button to your five-button menu/artwork which you have created months ago.

Always believe... have faith in your pen.

 

Learn from other individuals but don't sacrifice ORIGINALITY

The first part alone is easy. We learn easily from others. The first part with the second part or the second part alone is the tougher part. Even harder if you're easily inspired by other artworks. In this world where almost every thing else has been created and conceptualized already, you'd be surprise when a new one... something unique, innovative, sugar-free and at the same time 'cool' pops out.

The human mind is a vast space of creativity and imagination. Start exploring the un-explored parts. Start deviating from your normal porn-infested-think-tank routine.

And if you have discovered how to do it, do inform us too.

 

Know each item on your photoshop menu.


Read... experiment and read. Then read once again. Even Photoshop's help file is a great source of information. It is up there next to your Window menu. Manuals and books can be boring for some, but you'll be surprised with the things you'll discover. And i'm not just referring to two or more things but even more than all the combined but denied hidden wealth of all the scums of this earth. Not less though, than the weapons of mass destruction still hidden somewhere.

 

Experiment.


[This feature contains the words 'Bush', 'president', 'Saddam', 'weapons of mass destruction', 'scums', 'porn', 'CIA' and now the word 'experiment', do you think Echelon is now snooping on this article and one or two of those NSA-180-IQ staff is analyzing the hidden agenda in this article and a couple more researches are digging into my background already?]

When you're not doing anything, do experiment with things/features that Photoshop holds. They'll be very useful for future uses. If you have to try applying ten or more processes/filters to one object, then do it and familiarize yourself with the outcome.

Experiment and quench that never ending curiousity of yours.

 

Organize your folders

2003-1021_FOLDERNAME.

Clear and 'informative' names with dates on your folders is one convention. A readme file for each folder for faster reading can make things easier too. A table of contents or list... there are a thousand and five permutations on how to organize your working folders... so have one.

It does not matter what your conventions are. But always have one.

 

Backup your leet .PSD files


I can post a million stories about the advantages of backing up files which include some of my own but i won't. Just trust me on this one. Do backups. And have back-ups of those back-ups too. And back-ups to those back-ups of back-ups and secure them on a different location just in case an asteroid hits the area where your PC and your primary back-ups are stored.

If possible place those secondary back-ups in a place safe from Judgement Day.

 

Observe NATURE

Nature has always been a good source of inspiration. And oftentimes it unlocks a lot of art-related processes. The LOS2002 wall was inspired by a huge tree i often see every time i was walking home in our old place.

© Alexander Natruskin / Reuters

Learn lighting through nature... shadows as well. Learn motion capture through nature. Pixar animators had these huge tanks in their workplay during the creation of that top grossing summer movie, Finding Nemo. Most of them even have to scuba dive and earn a

professional status in that field. The outcome speaks for itself.

Observe. Observe and observe. Women are part of nature too do observe them as well... and you'll learn a great deal of art. Observe with outmost respect of course, or you'll end up doing .psd files with broken fingers, a blackeye, a broken heart and much worse a spell that will make you woman/love-less for three folds of your lifetime. But of course if you have observed things well you can now auto-compute the trajectory of the object (if she considers hurling one at you), dock at the appropriate angle, know when to hide or use those God-given-heaven-loves-boys talent of yours.

You know... photoshop is like women. But that, my friend, is another story.

 

Music pushes pixels

You cannot create love-related cards when listening to Nine Inch Nail's music. Nor can you create those elite abstract digital artworks while a boy band type of song serenades you. Choose the right kind of music and mood for your artwork. Sometimes even silence can be of help.

 

···

Now... i don't know how to end this one. Maybe promising you once again of a third part that will be released in the 'near future' is enough, right?

 

 

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