Photoshop tutorials - Easy to follow...

[Intrigued]

I thought these were some of the easiest (with visual feedback to boot) Photoshop tutorials to follow.

http://home.zonnet.nl/epragt/tutorials/photoshop/index.jsp.htm

I am somewhat new to seriously using Photoshop... so if these 'tuts' are not all that please point me to the 'good ones!'

Thanks!

[Corey]

Some fine tutorials, only problem is that they are all stolen. For example a couple of the original creators of said tutorials are:

http://www.phong.com/tutorials/
http://www.designsbymark.com/pstips/index.html

There are more but I'm sure you get the point. There isn't a single tutorial on that page which isn't stolen. They all existed elsewhere first. Also I happen to know several of the original creators personally and can assure you they don't give permission for people to just take their stuff like that, i.e. no credit, etc. That page is 100% foul play.

Kind of sad really. I never know what to say about people who do that sort of thing. Obviously they have been reproduced and posted on this page without permission nor credit but anyhow...

Intrigued the very best Photoshop tutorials are the ones you use. I know that sounds trite but it's true.

In this case, having gone through the site my impression of this individual is exceedingly un-positive.

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[eric_darling]

Yeah - you'll see those tutorials all over the place, and while I think I once actually had a need for a "rust" texture, I believe that tutorials like this have limited learning application for those serious about the software.

FWIW, here's some more useful ones:
http://www.thinkdan.com/tutorials/photoshop.html

Even though they're "old," most are original and still work very well in later versions of the software.

[Intrigued]

Well... it sounds like being a friend of theirs you may want to make them aware of such. I am glad you supplied the author's URL for these tutorials.

Intrigued the very best Photoshop tutorials are the ones you use.

Sorry that one flew right over my head seems.

However, I have worked on and off today working to perfect 'Plastic II' and the 'Metal' tutorials. I am amazed at the depth (number of steps, layers, etc. etc.) that it takes to produce some of these fine images. Well worth it no doubt.

Thank you again for the links and for the heads up on the URL situation, Tigg..Corry. Phong's work/tutorials are surely appreciated!

[Corey]

Yes Phong (Anson Vogt) is an *amazing* guy. All those people are well aware that their work is being used wrongfully but:

a) I no longer maintain this particular group of friends for a variety of reasons although I have only good things to say about them.

b) Artsists have no appetite for anything other than art. What could they actually do about it anyhow?

But anyhow, it's all good, all those people are propsering so no one's starving due to any of this. Anyhow what I meant by the tutorial remark is that the best tutorials are the ones you like enough to actually do not neccesarily the most technically advanced ones.

As for the many steps, that's just their way of doing things. In my case I don't tend to do things that way, Photoshop will accomodate any type of workflow. In my case I tend to use Layer effects to get *most* effects and have had very good luck. For example check out the music player template in AMS 5.0, that's a layer style and it lacks nothing. So anyhow just be aware that there are many ways to do things, those tutorials are just offering ane way of looking at things and by no means *the best* way of looking at things.

Photoshop is very smart, it can get as intelligent or as basic as you ask it to, so depending on how you like to work in other apps, you might find that the workflow in those tutorials may or may not be ideal for you. Time will reveal that. One thing about Photoshop, there's no way to master it quickly. It takes years, it's a *very* deep app. In order to master it you must also master the concepts of art such as lighting, color, contrast, etc. It's worth it though, no other single skill in the design world can be considered more valuable to a given employer or team project than someone who is a master of Photoshop. Although everyone uses it at some point, very few people actually *master* Photoshop.

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[Intrigued]

But anyhow, it's all good, all those people are propsering so no one's starving due to any of this. Anyhow what I meant by the tutorial remark is that the best tutorials are the ones you like enough to actually do not neccesarily the most technically advanced ones.

Ah... sound advice!

Well, I tried twice to replicate the tutorials and I get close but still I find it does not look quite right. So, paired with your comment here... I see this will take longer to get at least decent at such.

Sounds like a challenge and I do enjoy those more than not. (grin)

Thanks for the feedback and point of direction.

[Corey]

Yes, that is true, even if you follow those tutorials to the "T" your results will vary. That's not you, that's the tutorial, obviously they made undocumented tweaks.

I'll tell you, there's a couple key sources of good material which you can really rely one. If you have about $70 to invest there are two singular books which are fun, accurate, and worthwhile.:

1. The Photoshop Wow book (new CS version coming soon here http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...books&n=507846)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...books&n=507846

2. Adobe Photoshop CS Studio Techniques

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books

Jack Davis and Ben Willmore are the most definitive experts on Photoshop in the world. And they are great guys who will answer your emails if you buy their book and then have a question. That's unheard of. Anyhow suffice to say I have been through 100+ books on Photoshop and those two are the best out there. They are both equally valuable but if you can only get one try #1 if you are into effects and eye candy or try #2 of you are into professional production techniques.

If you can afford both then for sure you should grab them, you definitely will not regret it. They both have really cool project based lessons but also carefully explain the finer points of eaech as you go along. Suffice to say that way back when I was studying for the Adobe A.C.E. Photoshop expert exam, Ben Willmore helped me quite a bit. I can't say enough good things about him as an educator, a Photoshop expert, and a person. His web site is http://www.digitalmastery.com

You'll notice that Adobe puts their offical stamp on everything he publishes too, that's very, very rare.

Whatever you do, definitely avoid any training by Bruce Heaven, i.e. Lynda.com, that's is easily the worst material I have ever seen.

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[Intrigued]

Well, I went back through and got my single character to look 3-D like and the lighting is starting to come along. I tried two sources... Spotlight and Omni like the 'tut' said and that did help.

Thank you for suggesting those books Corey and the background on the authors. The only other author I have had that good of communication luck with is John Smiley... who teaches and writes (or did when I was into such) Visual Basics books. I got to speak to him via telephone a couple times and he was so knowledgeable and patient. That left a lasting positive mark on me.

I did purchase a 6-CD training video from a company out West (C.A.) and it seems to be an decent enough application (really they should have AMS 5 the project though). However, I find that reading a book I still consume the material better (and scribbling in books is just plain fun).

Thank you Corey, again.

(Now... where's that Phong Plastic II tutorial...)

[Corey]

Just a heads up FWIW. There are many ways of getting the look you want. My main thing is to try and focus on non-destructive techniques such as adjustment layers and layer effects. Things like lighting effects are great but if you apply them to an adjustement layer instead you can edit them anytime in the future. That might not seem like much today but I've found that inevitably things need to be edited and you will be very happy of you chose a non-destructive effect.

The other day I was attempting to give some audio production tips to a studio owner friend of mine and he refuted the standard way of mixing tracks using non-destructive effects by saying to me, "Yeahhhh but Corey, listen to this bass sound, why would ANYONE ever want a different bass sound than this, EVER? This is the best bass sound in the world!"

And I know a lot of Photoshop or visual arts guys follow that same route, especially game artists or comic artists, but I would strongly caution against that route unless you are *absolutely* certain that your tastes will never evolve past today.

Just as a heads up there are a lot of ways of doing things non-destructively but just to give you a single relevant example, instead of applying a spotlight to a layer, at the very least apply it to a copy of that layer. But best of all try and use layer effects, they have built in lighting, shadows, and glows so really almost anything is do-able.

Anyhow just so long as you are aware that there is one school of thought for Photoshop production which avoids all forms od destructive editing. Same wih audio and video actually, anytime you can apply an effect without actually affecting the source material in any way, you're two steps ahead.

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[Intrigued]

I am going to pocket that tip!

That, to me, is the way to go. I like to be prepared so that ideology should fit well with my work habits nicely.

I started reading the sample Chapter 10 for that book you posted (ok, Plastic II tutorial will hold till tomorrow) and before I knew it I was half way through reading the chapter, savoring every word! I like how he stops and helps you visualize what he is talking about (like Channels)!

Looks like my old copy of PaintShop Pro is going to be gathering some dust finally!

[eric_darling]

Well, I went back through and got my single character to look 3-D like and the lighting is starting to come along. I tried two sources... Spotlight and Omni like the 'tut' said and that did help.

If you want to do true 3D style lighting in Photoshop, there's no substitute for Light! from Digital Film Tools.

The power of plug-ins for Photoshop is not to be underestimated. You can usually recreate various effects roughly by spending an additional hour or two with Photoshop's own tools, but then who has time for that?

Remember the golden rule regarding software mastery: There's no substitute for time and grade. The key ingredients are sweat and tears, and yes, even blood sometimes.

[Corey]

Yes, channels are very much where it's at for a lot of stuff. For example, imagine being able to come back to an interface you built, 6 months later, and having all the precise selections for all the objects right at your fingertips, it only takes a few seconds to store your object selections as channels. Also by using channel masks you can really open up some huge possibilties. Additionally, and this may be a bit overwhelming, but since you can apply filters to channels, they make developing some very intricate and unlikely selections a simply and quick task.

For example if you apply a lighting effect to an empty channel then the lit areas become a selection. S'pretty amazing stuff once you start to get into it. You can also paint directly into channels which, if you have a tablet and a decent hand, is a HUGE thing.

Amazingly most users never even delve into channels and therefore miss out on a lot of power. Although that is also a great testament to Photoshop in that I have seen tons and tons of fairly advanced users who have created tons of stunning works in Photoshop whilst actually only *using* about 20% of the program's features.

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[Intrigued]

Very interesting...

We have a family member on my wife's side that has done some excellent and highly professional Photoshop graphics/projects, and for some major clients. I was really impressed with the 3-D like effects she was able to draw out of P.S. when I looked through one of her recent (at the time) projects.

Well, thank you again for all the pointers, help!

The kicker is I have another book on the way to do with C++ (M.S. Visual C++). I guess I will have to slice up some aft-work time and quasi classroom'ify my home work area. (grin)

Good thing I kicked the online gaming to the door...pretty much anyway.

[Late Edit on Eric's comment]

Swanky!

Thanks eric. I am off to check that URL out.

[Corey]

Yes, there are some true masters of creating 3D stuff in photoshop (no plug-ins) amongst my faves is the tremendously talented and cool dude Bert Monroy:

http://www.bertmonroy.com/

All this is 100% Photoshop/Illustrator no plugs:

http://www.bertmonroy.com/fineart/text/fineart1.htm

For example:

http://www.bertmonroy.com/fineart/images/Oakland.jpg

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[eric_darling]

Great work, indeed.

Well, I guess my whole point about the plug-ins is this: why waste your time when it isn't necessary.

I mean, it's cool and all that I can hand-code the HTML for a given site and get everything perfect. But I can do the same job in Dreamweaver MX 2004 in a fraction of the time, since it automates so much.