First of all:
I have the Swedish version of Photoshop, so I don't really know what everything is called in the English version. If you notice any mistakes, let me know! :)
Ok, I played around with PS a couple of days ago and got a pretty cool result:
http://img190.exs.cx/img190/9350/old2pm.gif
(Sorry for the border, pretty ugly and simple, but that's not the point.. ^^)
Looks pretty 3D and sweet, doesn't it? Let's try making something like that!
1.
Open up a new document with transparent background! Size doesn't really matter. For the above image I used 600 x 400 px.
Select white as foreground color and press Shift+F5 to fill the whole document.
2.
Create a new layer by pressing CTRL+Shift+N. Hit 'D' to restore the default back and foreground colors; black and white. Select the Elliptical marquee tool and do something like this:
http://img234.exs.cx/img234/2115/19cy.jpg
Press Shift+F5 to fill it with black color.
Now make a new mark inside the black circle. If you're using the marquee tool, holding Alt will make things easier. Make it smaller than the circle. You can also do it like this:
Select > Modify > Contract
Contract it by 6 pixels or so.
Hit delete, and you should have this:
http://img235.exs.cx/img235/7436/22nk.jpg
3.
Now to the fun part. :)
Press CTRL+T or go to Edit > Free transform. Now form it like you want it! Here's an example of how you could do it:
http://img235.exs.cx/img235/2733/33se.jpg
Now make another layer. Now repeat step 2 and 3, but make another tranform, like this:
http://img178.exs.cx/img178/5878/49ky.jpg
Now you repeat those steps a couple of times till you get something like this:
http://img82.exs.cx/img82/6008/50mf.jpg
4.
Now merge the all the circle layers inte one layer by pressing CTRL+E a couple of times.
Go to: Filter > Stylize > Find edges
Should look like this:
http://img55.exs.cx/img55/2379/62zc.jpg
Now go to: Filter > Stylize > Extrude (Type: pyramids, Size: 5, Depth: 30)
Then go to: Filter > Blur > Radiall blur (Amount: 15, Zoom, Quality: high)
Then: Filter > Blur > Gaussian blur (Radius: 1,0)
Should look like this now:
http://img131.exs.cx/img131/2784/70tz.jpg
5.
Let's give the circles some color! Press CTRL+U and give it som color. Remember to click the 'Colorize' checkbox in the Hue/Saturation window. I did like this:
http://img180.exs.cx/img180/1909/88xz.jpg
6.
Ok, let's leave the circles like this for a while and concentrate on the background! We can't just have a white background..
Select the background layer! If your colors aren't set to the defaults, hit 'D'.
Now go to: Filter > Render > Clouds
Then press CTRL+L to get to the the Levels window. Tweak a little till you get more contrast to the clouds. Then press CTRL+U and give this some colors too. It looks nice if the colors match eachother.
Baam!!
http://img41.exs.cx/img41/6027/93oo.jpg
7.
For this step you need some cool brushes. You can download brushes everywhere, just google "Photoshop brushes" or or go to DeviantArt (Browse > Resources > Photoshop Brushes) and you'll probably find some cool ones.
Create a new layer, it should be between the circle layer and the background.
Select any kind of gray as foreground color and go wild with the brushes, but don't overdo it, that won't look good. When you have some cool effects, give it some color with CTRL+U.
If you want even more cool effects, create another layer, go wild with the brushes again, and give it some color, but make it a bit different than the first layer. You can do this how many times you want. :P
This is what I came up with:
http://img123.exs.cx/img123/9748/108yq.jpg
8.
Now we'll add some details to the circle layer! Start by creating a new document with transparent background, size: 1x2 px.
Zoom in and take the pencil tool and set the size to 1, color black. Make one of the two pixels black.
Go to Edit > Define pattern, name the pattern "Scanlines".
9.
Go to your circle document again.
Right-click the circle layer in the layer window; select blending options.
Select 'Inner shadow' and set the opacity to 50% or something like that.
Select 'Outer glow' and set the color to white and the opacity to 30%.
Select 'Bevel and emboss'. For that one, set the depth to 50% and the size to 5.
Select 'Pattern' or whatever it's called, and select you recently made pattern, the line thingy. Set the opacity to 50%.
Press 'ok'! :D
My result:
http://img206.exs.cx/img206/7695/116jw.jpg
And if you're not satisfied with your result, try raping it with CTRL+i. It will invert all the colors and give this awsome effect:
http://img204.exs.cx/img204/5283/127br.jpg
I used this one for my first sign, as you can see.
If you try this tutorial, post your results here!
