Enhancing Graphics Using Artistic Effects

Objective: To take a simple plain shape and turn it into realistic looking metal by applying Artistic Effects and Texture Effects.

Tools Used: Selection Tool, Flood Fill Tool, Pick Tool

Palettes Used: Tool Options Palette, Tools Toolbar, Materials Palette, Layers Palette

Effects Used: Feather, Brightness and Contrast, Hot Wax Coating, Dodge, Chrome, Hard Light, One Step Photo Fix, Blinds

Types of Layers Used: Raster

This tutorial is a simple introduction to just simply having fun with some of other powerful features in Paint Shop Pro Photo. Corel may have tacked on the word "photo" to the end of Paint Shop Pro for marketing purposes, but don't let that fool you. This program is capable of much more than that, and for those of you looking for something a bit more advanced for creating graphics than simple photograph manipulations, Paint Shop Pro Photo is sure to please any aspiring graphic designer!

Remember that Paint Shop Pro Photo DOES NOT create the graphics. You do. It is only a tool by which you've chosen to create graphics with, BUT at a price that's tough to beat! The only limitation is that of your own ingenuity and creativity.

Keeping with the tradition of Loadboy style graphics, we're going to show you how to use some of these features to create near realistic metal style effects. These same effects can be used whether your trying to create glass, chrome, plastic, and anything else that you want that extra definition and shine to.

Step 1

Start by creating a new image 300 X 300. Set the background color to #c0c0c0. This is the lighter of the two gray colors in the default palette. You can of course use any color of background that you would like, but a darker colored background other than white really enhances this type of graphics.

On the Tools toolbar, select the Selection Tool (S)

On the Tool Options palette, Selection type: Rectangle

Layers > New Raster Layer... > Ok

Now we're ready to make our pattern.

Start by creating a rectangular selection just below the center of the canvas. We want to allow ourselves plenty of room to work:

On the Materials palette, set your Foreground color to white ( #FFFFFF) and your Background color to black ( #000000).

On the Materials palette, click on the Foreground color and select the Gradient tab.

Click on the image to open the available gradients.

Select Foreground-background and use the following settings:

On the Tools toolbar, select the Flood Fill Tool (F) and fill the selection:

On the Tools toolbar, select the Selection Tool (S)

Create another rectangular selection across the top of the image like so:

Once you let go of the mouse, you will have a new selection:

This new selection is what we'll call the edger.

Because we're going to take this one image and create an entirely new graphic image with it by duplicating it and stacking it on top of each other, we want to be able to define the top edge from the bottom edge, one piece from the other. Don't worry if this doesn't make sense, it will in just a moment.

Selections > Modify > Feather... > Number of pixels: 8 > OK

Adjust > Brightness and Contrast > Brightness/Contrast... > Brightness: 50 Contrast: 15 > Ok

You can see that we've smoothly lightened up the top edge of our image. Once you're satisfied with the setting, save it to the Alpha Channel.

Selections > Load/Save Selection > Save Selection To Alpha Channel... > Save

Now let's move our edger towards the bottom edge of the image.

Place your mouse cursor anywhere inside of the selection and holding down your RIGHT mouse button move the selection towards the bottom edge like so:

Now we want to darken this edge. All we're going to do here is add the minus sign ("-") in front of our previous Brightness setting:

Adjust > Brightness and Contrast > Brightness/Contrast... > Brightness: -50 Contrast: 15 > Ok

Selections > Select None

Your completed pattern should now look similar to this:

Step 2

Using our newly created pattern, we'll just create some quick off the wall metallic gizmo. We'll create just enough of an odd shape to show you how those Artistic Effects can really be the difference between good and great looking graphics! Let's have some fun.

Layers > Duplicate

Select the Pick Tool(P) from the Tools toolbar.

You should now see that our duplicated image has several small square points around it. These are called nodes.

Move the duplicated image so that it sets directly on top of our original image:

Now let's bring the top of the image down about one third of the way. It does not have to be precise:

But it does have to look cool, so let's make this piece darker than the original. Using the same settings as the last time

Adjust > Brightness and Contrast > Brightness/Contrast... > Brightness: -50 Contrast: 15 > Ok

Let's make it look even more cooler.

Layers > Duplicate

Again using the Pick Tool(P) move the duplicated image so that it sets directly on top of our previous image:

Let's taper the top of this piece. While holding down the Ctrl key on your keyboard, grab either the top left or right node and bring it inwards so that your image now looks similar to this:

I've also decided that i'm going to bring the top down slightly also so that I have different sizes to play with later:

We'll add three more pieces and call it good.

On the Layers palette, highlight the Raster 1 layer:

Layers > Duplicate

Layers > Arrange > Bring to Top

Use the Pick Tool(P) and move the duplicated image so that it sets directly on top of our previous image, and adjust the width so that it matches also:

Two more quick pieces to go.

Layers > Duplicate

By now you should have the hang of it. Move the piece on top of the previous one. This time I've modified it again for the width and height to look like this:

Let's add one more final piece.

On the Layers palette, highlight the Copy (2) of Raster 1 layer:

Layers > Duplicate

Layers > Arrange > Bring to Top

Image > Flip

Now, I'm going to arrange it so that it fits just below the bottom edge of the previous image, like this:

Now that we have a decent piece to work with for the Artistic Effects, lets place these into a group. You don't really have to do this step, but it's a good practice to get into!

On the Layers palette, select the Raster 1 layer

Layers > New Layer Group... > OK

Drag the other layers into the group. Remember to keep them in the same order when you move them. When you're finished it should look similar to this:

By moving your mouse over the Group 1 layer, you should be able to see complete image composed from all the layers within that group. Nice feature.

We want to create a copy of this Group 1 layer to work with and hide the original.

On the Layers palette, highlight Group 1.

Layers > Duplicate

Layers > Merge > Merge Group

On the Layers palette, turn off the visibility for the original Group 1 layer:

Now the fun begins. We're ready to proceed to step 3.

Step 3

Before we begin, let me point out a few things that I'm sure you'd think about early on if I didn't. First, we're going to show you how to apply these effects to a single merged image. Yes they could have been applied to each individual piece as they were being created. Why did we choose to start with a single merged image? Simple. As we've stated before on our site, there's more than one way to create any of these images. With this tutorial we wanted to explain it a step further.

What if this image was a team project and it was handed to you for the final touch up? What if it took hours to create the original and they (never admit it was you, we blame our kids) forgot to save a layered copy? What if it was never a layered image? What if your best paying client handed this image (or photograph) to you, asking for help to enhance it. A photograph? Oh yes!

Every tool available for manipulating photographs in Paint Shop Pro (Photo) is also at your disposal for manipulating graphics. Treat them all the same way. After all, photographs and graphics have the same thing in common. They're both images. Just because you manually created it doesn't make it any less available to each and every tool and effect that is labeled specifically for photographs. ANY software program that is designed to manipulate photographs, is designed to manipulate images, and can most definitely be used to manipulate web graphics. Graphic designers can learn a lot just from studying how to handle photographs, and vise versa.

Layers > Duplicate

On the Tools toolbar, select the Selection Tool (S)

On the Tool Options palette, Selection type: Rectangle

At this point you can decide which piece you want to work on, or if you would still like to follow along, I've chosen to work on the darker pieces first. Using the Selection Tool (S) I'm going to create a selection starting with the top piece first like this:

Now, holding down the Shift key on my keyboard, I'm going to create another selection around the next piece:

I'm going to remove the rest of duplicated image.

Selections > Invert

Now, hit Delete on your keyboard, and return the selection back to normal.

Selections > Invert

The first thing I want to do is give the image a darker richer tone.

Effect > Artistic Effects > Hot Wax Coating

Let's see what else we can do with this.

On the Layers palette, select Dodge from the Blend Mode:

Selections > Select None

That gives a nice bright hotspot:

I can control the intensity of this hotspot simply by lowering the opacity level. I kind of like this, so I'm just going to leave it as is.

Now let's move on to the next piece.

On the Layers palette, highlight the Copy of Group 1 layer

Layers > Duplicate

Layers > Arrange > Bring to Top

Using the Selection Tool (S) I'm going to create a selection across the center piece like this:

Remove the rest of duplicated image.

Selections > Invert

Hit Delete on your keyboard, and return the selection back to normal.

Selections > Invert

Effect > Artistic Effects > Chrome...> Flaws: 6 Brightness: 50 Use Original Color is checked > OK

That's nice and all. But you want to keep playing with those blend modes and stuff until you're really sure that this is where you want to stop.

I wasn't happy until I landed on Dodge for the Blend Mode:

Let's see if we can enhance this one step further.

Layers > Duplicate

Effect > Artistic Effects > Hot Wax Coating

Now let's blend this better with the bottom image.

On the Layers palette, select Hard Light from the Blend Mode:

Let's move on to a bigger piece.

Step 4

On the Layers palette, highlight the Copy of Group 1 layer

Layers > Duplicate

Layers > Arrange > Bring to Top

Using the Selection Tool (S) I'm going to create a selection across the center piece like this:

Remove the rest of duplicated image.

Hold it! Did you remove the wrong piece? :))

We've already fancied up the center of the image, so we'll remove this portion of our duplicated image.

Hit Delete on your keyboard. Simple enough right?

Let's try something different.

Selections > Select All [Keyboard shortcut: CTRL + A]

Selections > Float [Keyboard shortcut: CTRL + F]

Selections > Defloat [Keyboard shortcut: CTRL + Shift + F]

Adjust > One Step Photo Fix

Effects > Texture Effects > Blinds and use the following settings:

Your image should now look similar to this:

Selections > Modify > Contract... > Number of pixels: 5 > OK

Selections > Modify > Feather...> Number of pixels: 5 > OK

Selections > Invert

Now hit Delete on your keyboard.

Selections > Select None

As you can see, by experimenting with the different tools, effects, and blend modes, your images can take on a whole new artistic form of it's own.

Which would you prefer?

Sample

The original gradient used to create the sample pieces shown above is a custom created Loadboy gradient we call the "Watch" and can be downloaded here under the Specialized Psp Gradients section.