skin

Apr 27 2009

Adobe Photoshop Tip– Faux Jaguar Fur Type

jaguar19 Adobe Photoshop Tip Faux Jaguar Fur Type

By: Rick Yaeger

During MacWorld NY 2002, Apple came under fire for many things including charging an annual fee for .mac service (the free for life service previously known as iTools) and for offering no special deal for Mac OS X users who upgrade to version 10.2. As if those weren’t bad enough, Apple defaced its own “X” logo by covering it in simulated Jaguar fur. Why would they do such a thing? Sorry I can’t offer an answer to that question. I can however offer a suggestion on how you might do the very same thing.

As with our Ubiquitous

Aqua Type tutorial, we at MacMerc do not condone the use of Faux Fur Type

in any way. We only offer this tutorial for entertainment purposes. The techniques

shown below, when used separately, are harmless but when used together as illustrated

below without restraint, people may get hurt.

Step 1: There’s more than one way to skin a cat. (There may very well

be, but I only know this way)

The first thing we’ll have to is create some Jaguaresque texture. I

suppose you could paint all those spots in by hand. If you want to go that way,

suit yourself. For the rest of you that want Photoshop to do the work for you,

follow me.

I’m starting with a 7″ x 2″ 300ppi RGB file with a white background layer — for the purposes of this tutorial, I will assume you are working on a file of the same dimensions and resolution.

Create a new layer, fill it with White and name the layer “Jaguar Fur”.

Under Filter choose Texture>Stained Glass. Set the filter to a 25 pixel

Cell Size, 18 pixel Boarder Thickness and 0 Light Intensity and click “Okay.”

This filter will map out the basic spot pattern.

jaguar01 Adobe Photoshop Tip Faux Jaguar Fur Type

Invert (Command-I) and then go under Filter again and choose Sketch>Photocopy. I’ve used a Detail setting of 6 and a Darkness value of 50 to simulate the holes in the middle of the jaguar spots. The texture still looks too sharp and angular, so obviously we have to do a little more filtering.

jaguar02 Adobe Photoshop Tip Faux Jaguar Fur Type

Under Filter, choose Pixelate>Pointillize and set the Cell Size to 10 pixels

before hitting “Okay.” Now we’ve got spots on our spots and, not only

that, they are totally the wrong color.

jaguar03 Adobe Photoshop Tip Faux Jaguar Fur Type

Before we apply the final filter on our spots, set the foreground color to R: 10, G: 6, B: 0 (practically black, but not quite) and the background color to R: 225, G: 164, B: 59 (a nice dark orange).

Now choose Filter>Sketch>Stamp and set the Light/Dark Balance to 1 and

the smoothness to 7. Nice spots.

jaguar04 Adobe Photoshop Tip Faux Jaguar Fur Type

From spots to fur: Go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise… and use a setting

of 10%, Gaussian and Monochromatic and click “Okay.”

If you look closely at the Jaguar’d X on the Apple web site or on the Mac OS X 10.2 box, you will notice that the grain of the fur follows the lines of the letter…well, forget it, this tutorial is already running long so you’ll just have to deal with what you get.

Go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur… and set the Angle to 90° and the Distance to 10 pixels. Click “Okay.”

Go to Filter>Distort>Ripple and set the distortion Amount to 20% and the size to Large. Click “Okay.”

Now sharpen the fur by going to Filter>Sharpen>Sharpen. Now that you’ve Sharpened once, Sharpen again.

The jaguar skin is done. Now we just have to apply it to something.

Step 2: Adding Fur to Type

jaguar05 Adobe Photoshop Tip Faux Jaguar Fur Type

Just as I did in the Ubiquitous

Aqua Type tutorial, I will be setting “MacMerc.com” in 93pt ITC

Garamond Light Condensed in the center of our canvas. This will create a Type

layer in the Layers palette above the Jaguar Fur layer. Command-click the new

type layer to make a selection of its opacity.

Now click the Jaguar Fur layer to highlight it in the Layers palette and choose

Add Layer Mask>Reveal Selection from the Layers menu.You may now click the

layer visibility icon (the “eye”) next to the type layer to make that

layer invisible.

jaguar06 Adobe Photoshop Tip Faux Jaguar Fur Type

Select the Jaguar Fur layer in the Layers palette because next we are going to be adding some Layer Styles so that our type seems to

have dimension. You can download my finished style here, or set you own by the

following values:

Color:

R: 188,

G: 125,

B: 54

 jaguar09 Adobe Photoshop Tip Faux Jaguar Fur Type

 

Color:

R: 255,

G: 253,

B: 245

 jaguar11 Adobe Photoshop Tip Faux Jaguar Fur Type

 

Color:

Shadow

R: 141,

G: 103,

B: 0

Highlight

R: 255,

G: 250,

B: 199

 jaguar14 Adobe Photoshop Tip Faux Jaguar Fur Type

 

jaguar07 Adobe Photoshop Tip Faux Jaguar Fur Type

The final touch to the fur texture is to add the small stray hairs similar

to those that stick out from the upper serifs of the Jaguar X. Open the Channels

palette and drag the Jaguar Fur Mask to the “Create new channel” icon

at the bottom of that palette — this will create a duplicate.

 

Now choose Image>Rotate Canvas>90° CCW. Don’t worry if things look

a bit sideways, it’s only temporary.

Choose Filter>Stylize>Wind and set the Method to Wind and the Direction

to From the Left.

We can set the canvas upright again by choosing Image>Rotate Canvas>90°

CW.

Click the Jaguar Fur layer in the layers palette and click on the layer mask

icon that is displayed on the right hand side of it. Command click the “Jaguar

Fur Mask copy” channel in the Channels palette to activate it as a selection.

I want you to zoom into your image and find one of those upper serifs I mentioned

earlier. Using the Brush Tool, paint under the serif where you would like to

see some stray hairs. Repeat this process until you are satisfied with the amount

of stray hairs hanging from your type.

jaguar15 Adobe Photoshop Tip Faux Jaguar Fur Type

Step 3: A Moment to pause and reflect

The last step in this effect is to apply the reflection underneath the type.

Click the Background layer behind the Jaguar Fur layer, hit Command-A (Select

All) and then hit Shift-Command-C (Copy Merged). Finally, hit Command-V (Paste)

to add a new layer to our project. Rename this layer “Reflection”.

With the Reflection layer still selected choose Edit>Transform>Flip Vertical.

With the the Shift key down, use the Move tool (key command: v) to slide the

image within the Reflection layer straight down until the bottoms of the letters

meet. If the type you are using contains letters with descenders (strokes that

hang below the baseline), you may need to move the Reflection layer well below

the bottom of the descender in order to make the type seem to “hover.”

jaguar17 Adobe Photoshop Tip Faux Jaguar Fur Type

Set the Reflection layer’s opacity to 20% in from the Layers palette.

Go to Layer>Add Layer Mask and choose Reveal All. Make sure the Reflection

Layer Mask is highlighted in the Layers palette, the foreground color is set

to white and the background is set to black. Select the Gradient tool (key command:

g) and select the Foreground to Background gradient set to Linear in Normal

mode at 100% opacity. Hold the shift key down and click and drag straight down

from the bottom of the main text to about midway to the bottom of the canvas

and then release the mouse button. The effect is complete.

jaguar18 Adobe Photoshop Tip Faux Jaguar Fur Type

As with the Ubiquitous

Aqua Type tutorial, the final step is to close the document without saving,

trash that Layer Style you downloaded and never, ever use this tutorial. Speak

to someone you trust and respect about what you have done and ask them to be

there for you the next time you are tempted like this.

jaguar19 Adobe Photoshop Tip Faux Jaguar Fur Type

Read other Graphics Tips of the Week

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Apr 27 2009

Adobe Photoshop Tip– Photoshop Facial

As a preface, let me say that the method I’m about to explain is not a behind the scenes look at how the fashion magazines help to promote an unattainable beauty standard. It may very well be one method they use, but I have no way to confirm this. The method is merely the one I’ve been using for the past few years and it works for me. It won’t make a 60 year old look like a teenager, but it will soften wrinkles, blemishes and unevenness in the skin in a somewhat natural way.

I’ve seen a few tutorials out there that tell you to duplicate your photo on a layer, blur the detail out of it and then mask that layer off almost entirely only painting in the areas where you want to get rid of wrinkles. Yes, this method works, but in my experience it looks unnatural. There is no texture to the skin where the effect has been applied. My method is similar to this but offers a bit more humanness to the blending.

You could also remove wrinkles and blemishes with the Heal tool and, if that works for you–awesome! But as impressed as I am with the Heal tool, sometimes it replaces wrinkles with what look like collagen injections that were administered by a cake decorator from Dairy Queen.

Now that I’ve insulted every other method, now it’s time to put my Wacom tablet where my mouth is. My method is quite similar to the blur method I described, but it adds back a level of detail that makes the softened areas look more believable in my opinion. Here’s how it works:

before Adobe Photoshop Tip Photoshop Facial
We’re going to start with this image I bought off of iStockphoto.com. As you can see, even at this reduced size, the model in this shot has quite pronounced lines and wrinkles on his face. Now, what we’re going to do is not to attempt to turn back time 30 years or make him look like he’s fresh from a boy band–the man has lived his life, lets not have his photo protest that fact. We can, however, make him look like he’s lived a life less harsh on his skin. He’ll be the same age, he’ll just look like he drank a bit more water and possibly even used a night cream once in a while… okay, maybe that’s pushing it.

after Adobe Photoshop Tip Photoshop Facial

Have a look for yourself:

He’s still the same age, he just looks like he doesn’t have as many miles on him.

Next, we’ll have a look at a close-up to show you the detail you can really see in the image shown here.

navigator Adobe Photoshop Tip Photoshop Facial
beforeCU Adobe Photoshop Tip Photoshop Facial
Here’s our starting point…

afterCU Adobe Photoshop Tip Photoshop Facial

…and here’s the after.

He still has the wrinkles (and the bloodshot eyes…that will be another tutorial), they’re just not as pronounced–they’re softer. Also notice the subtle texture of the skin–it still looks like skin.

This is the kind of detail that you lose using the Clone tool or by simply blurring the area out.

Okay, enough of this: let’s get to the tellin’ how it’s done. It’s really easy.

Step 1: Median, not blur

Side note: If you are applying this technique to an image that is already made up of a series of layers, go Select>All (Command-A), Edit>Copy Merged (Shift-Command-C), Edit>Paste (Command-V) and then make sure the newly created layer is brought to the top layer position.

I duplicate my Background layer (see side note) and with this new layer selected in the Layer palette, I go Filter>Noise>Median… and adjust the slider until you no longer see the dark shadows of the wrinkles you are trying to soften. For the image I’m using, a setting of 15 did the trick.

Why Median? Why not Gaussian Blur? Have a look:

gausblur Adobe Photoshop Tip Photoshop Facial

Gaussian Blur set at 15 pixels

median Adobe Photoshop Tip Photoshop Facial

Median set at 15 pixels

Do you see how the Median filter took out the wrinkles without obliterating the “good” edge detail and how it left the contoured tones of the skin intact. To me, this just looks more natural. Also, when we add a layer mask and start adding this layer in with the Brush tool, we will be able to go in between the eyebrow and the eyelashes without picking up dark tones that would have spilled into that area if we had used the Gaussian Blur.

Step 2: High Pass

What is High Pass?
We played a bit with the High Pass filter way back in one of my first Photoshop tutorials here.

The filter hangs out in the “Other” category when it should almost be included with the Sharpening filters. If you were to take an image, duplicate its Background layer on a new layer, apply a High Pass of 1 on that layer and set the layer’s blending mode to “Overlay”, it would almost completely duplicate the effect of applying an Unsharp Mask of the same magnitude to that image.

The High Pass filter allows sharpening while allowing you to fully edit the “sharpening.” Imagine now: you can blend it, blur it, dodge it, burn it. Very cool.

This is where we add a bit of detail and texture back to the image.

Duplicate the Background layer again and bring the new dupe up to the top of the Layers palette and make sure it is selected there.

Now go Filter>Other>High Pass… and give it a low setting (I used 2). As you use this technique, experiment with different settings.

I then added a few percents worth of noise to my High Pass layer (Filter>Noise>Add Noise… set to 2% and Gaussian distribution … if you’re worried about color shifting, set it to “Monochromatic”)

Looks great, huh? No, I know, it looks like hell–but we’re not done.

Get your Layers palette out, hold down the Option key on your keyboard and click the line between the Median layer and the High Pass layer in the Layers palette This is what is called a Clipping Mask and, though you barely see anything change right now, it means that no part of the High Pass layer will show unless there is image showing from the Median layer below it. It means in this case, the effective Fill value of the High Pass layer just dipped down to match that of the Median layer.

Now change the Blending Mode of the High Pass layer to Overlay.

Now things should look… interesting.

Step 3: Painting out the wrinkles

Select the Median layer in the Layers palette and go Layer>Layer Mask>Hide All. Make sure that new layer mask is selected in the Layers palette; it should be after newly creating it.

Now is the time to tap the X key on your keyboard (to reset you foreground and background colors to white and black) and get out the Brush tool. You can now paint away all of the wrinkles in your image by applying the Brush tool to those areas of the new layer mask you created on the Median layer.

By making the Median layer a clipping mask of the High Pass layer you paint in (and out) both of them together.

Conclusion

That’s it–that’s the technique.

The values I’ve plugged into the filters in this example may be too strong or not strong enough for your images. The beauty of layer masks as opposed to applying filter or tools directly to the image is that you can use this pair of Median and High Pass layers to affect the wrinkles that they suit and then create others (stronger or weaker) to affect others.

Enjoy.

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Oct 23 2008

InvisibleSHIELD for new MacBook family available for pre-order

APPMB2FB 20081022 210253 InvisibleSHIELD for new MacBook family available for pre orderI’ve been playing around with ZAGG’s InvisibleSHIELD for the 2G iPod touch and after some initial misgivings, I have to say, I like the being able to show off the beauty of Apple’s iPod rather than hiding it behind a bulky protective case. When I use the typical cases, I often wonder why I’m protecting the iPod against scratches if I never let its beautiful design out to be seen? What special occasion am I saving it for?

The invisibleSHIELD is made from a durable adhesive film exclusive to ZAGG. The company claims that it is the thinnest protective skin of its kind and that it protects from wear and tear without altering the innovative design. I have to say, though I haven’t gone out of my way to scuff my iPod, this material is tough–seriously tough.

Yesterday, ZAGG announced that invisibleSHIELDs for the new 13-inch MacBook and 15-inch MacBook Pro are available for pre-order (they are also selling for a reduced price of USD$43.96). Check out the invisibleSHIELDs currently for Apple laptops, most selling for USD$54.95.

I might be inclined to use the base skin from the invisibleSHIELD with a beautiful Gelaskin for the top (though I don’t think the Gelaskin is nearly as protective).

To serve as a demonstration of the skin’s durability, here’s a video produced by ZAGG that shows two iPhones; one protected by an invisibleSHIELD and one completely naked.

Note:

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