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 Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide

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Butoden

Butoden


Male Number of posts : 79
Age : 37
Location : Netherlands, Feyenoord! :p
Registration date : 2007-11-13

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PostSubject: Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide   Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide EmptySun Dec 02, 2007 2:46 am

Hello rDogs,

This will be a more detailed guide how to Photoshop your Screenshots. Very Happy Hope you have fun reading it. And hey maybe you will learn a thing or two, that is the point after all. Okay let's begin right away.
First you have to pick a screenshot. I picked this one:



Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_73094_001ShotOriginal_122_1036lo
This is Devine from L2 Phoenix. An Overlord rebirth to a Destroyer. Yes you might have seen this killer in action in one of my movies! MUUWAHHA err yeah anyway. Open this screenshot with Adobe Photoshop. Maybe my Photoshop Version is a bit outdated (old) but I think it will be understandable if you have a newer version. ( I doubt much has changed )

Okay this is what u shud see now

Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_73095_002All_122_712lo

Let us name everything just so there are no misunderstandings!!

Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_73101_002LayerMenu_122_509lo
This I call the Layer Menu.



Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_73107_002Toolbar_122_640lo
This I call the Toolbar



Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_73117_002TopMenu_122_545lo
And this I will call the MenuOptions



Okay now that that is out of the way we can begin to make this screenshot look really awesome.


We will begin by Sharpening the current 'Layer' , the layer is called Background by default.
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_73647_003Sharpen_122_400lo

Now that that is done, we will duplicate it
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_73654_003DuplicateLayer_122_800lo


Okay now you will have two of the same layers. Now we will move to the Layer Options
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_73806_004LayerMenu_122_481lo

Set it as a Color Dodge, choose it from the DropDown Menu (We will use this menu more in the future so remember this)
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_73809_004SetAsColorDodge_122_940lo

Now as you can see it will be a much brighter screenshot (woohoo), but if we take a closer look at the sword we can see some really ugly edges(lines) between the sword and the sky and also some more ugly edges in between the horn and the sword for instance and even in the sword themselves... Yucky.
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_73811_004YuckyRandjes_122_997lo



Now we want these sharp edges (or ugly lines) to go away because they are well.. ugly and they aren't realistic and not nice to see and we will have problems with these sharp edges in the future steps. So...

Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_74343_005BackGround_122_358lo
Select the Background Layer!! This is very important.

Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_74344_005BlurTool_122_953lo
Select the Blur Tool found in your Toolbar. A blur tool basically UNSHARPENS things, makes them fague.

Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_74351_005BlurToolSelectSizeOfTool_122_495lo
Select the Size of your Blur Tool, make the size of the Blur Tool (the diameter) pretty big like 100 or 70 or so if you have a big screenshot. Now start blurring the background, the far away things such as in my screenshot this is the shops, sir Roderick, the towers, the sky. MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT ACCIDENTILY BLUR YOUR CHARACTER NAME, CLANLOGO, FACE OR WEAPON because it will look really weird and therefor BAD.

Now that it looks as if the far away things are really far away, we need to make those sharp edges a little softer.

Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_74352_005SelectSmallerDiameter_122_981lo
Make a smaller Diameter with the Blur Tool, I used 9 but 13 or so will work as well.


Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_74354_005ShowingZoomedImageDetail_122_36lo
Now zoom in and start blurring the sharp edges of your character, for instance here I am blurring the tip of the sword, on the right of the little circle = blurred, on the left = needs to be blurred.

Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_74360_005ShowingZoomedImageDetai2_122_163lo
Here I am done 'Blurring' lol (funny word) uhm and you see LESS SHARP EDGES. After this I noticed some more sharp edges on Devine's cheek and the neck and the details in the sword, but make sure you get at least the most important lines which really stand out.

Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_74367_005ShowingZzResults_122_34lo
This is the result. For instance you can see Devine's fingers holding the blade, I forgot those and I forgot some detail in the sword. Also make sure you blur any nonblurred spot with the big tool in the background, for instance in my shot between Devine's knees and the little tower in between my sword and the elbow etc.

If you have trouble checking out if something should be blurred or no, or if you missed a spot try this:
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_75025_006Eye_122_857lo
Uncheck the Eye on the 'Background Copy' and you will see just the Background, this will make you see a few things which you forgot. Worked for me. =p

Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_75028_006SaveItInBetweenNAAPS_122_1166lo
SAVE IN BETWEEN NAAPS, SAVE IT AS A PROJECT NOT AS A .JPG because you lose a little bit of quality Wink Okie? Always save in between your projects even if you are writing a guide in notepad like me for instance.
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Butoden

Butoden


Male Number of posts : 79
Age : 37
Location : Netherlands, Feyenoord! :p
Registration date : 2007-11-13

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PostSubject: Re: Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide   Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide EmptySun Dec 02, 2007 2:46 am

LET US CONTINUE...

Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_75260_007-1Select_122_598lo
Select the Background Copy. <<< IMPORTANT!

Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_75263_007-2Blur_122_629lo
In your Menu Options select Gaussian Blur

Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_75269_007-3PopUp_122_152lo
Make the Radius 1,5 Pixels.


Ohh now it looks nicer ya? Smile Maybe you will see some more things you have missed with the Blur Tool now, so make sure you get them before the next step!!


The following step is how to make the armors more shiney and look more real, basically you enhance the sunspots on the armor.


Duplicate the Background Layer and name it 'Light 1' , drag this on top of the background and the background copy.

Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_75544_008dragNewLayerBG_122_1155lo

Go to your options menu and you will find Desturate as seen below.
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_75547_008-2Desturate_122_863lo

Everything will turn black and white now. Dont worry, it's what we want at the moment. Now go to the options menu again and select Levels.
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_75548_008-3Levels_122_539lo

Drag the black icon to the right as you can see in the screenshot below, so you will only see the most important white glimses on your screenshot. Make sure not too much is still white.
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_75553_008-4DragRight_122_1174lo



Now what we want to achieve here, what we want to reach is 'SUNSPOTS ON THE ARMOR', so we are going to Maximize things first. Find it on your Menu Options as seen below:
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_75766_009OtherMaximum3_122_465lo


Set the Radius to 3.
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_75772_009Radius3_122_361lo

Now everything will be in big white spots. Now we take the Pencil Tool found in your Toolbar.
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_75778_009PencilTool_122_523lo


Make the color of the Pencil Tool black like the background!!

Now as you can kind of see Devine's head here holding the sword (CLOSEUP). But of course, Devine's head can not be glowing because of the sun lol!!
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_75781_009-Orc-Head_122_538lo


So use the Pencil tool to make some skin parts and other parts non-white. Make it black like the background. This means whatever is white will glow and whatever is not white will not glow. Dont overdo it on the glow parts. You really only want a few spots here and there or it will become too much and too much is not good.
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_75783_009-Orc-Head2_122_976lo

Usually I paint everything black in the background which could be glowing, because I want to focus on my character. Very Happy If you are not sure what needs to glow or not, just uncheck the little eye on the Light 1 Layer to see the original layers and check it again to see if you should let something glow. Confused? Don't worry it will become clear very soon. Very Happy


Now we are going to make the glow a little more natural. So add another Gaussian Blur (found in the Menu Options), this time of 3 pixels.
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_76193_010GaussianBlur3_122_36lo

It should look something like this now:
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_76199_010ExampleAfterGuasBlur_122_252lo

Now set the Light 1 Layer as Linear Dodge and VOILA SUPERGLOWWYYY. Maybe it is too much right now, or look too bright, but we will fix that later.
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_76199_010SetAsLinearDodgeORColorD_122_1134lo
You can also set this as a Color Dodge layer, whatever you thinks gives the best glow effect. It is different with every screenshot in my experience.


Now to add even more glow, but a softer glow, Duplicate the 'Light 1' layer and name it 'Light 2'. Drag it on top of the other layers as seen below:
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_76497_011DupeTheLight1Layer_122_621lo

Now set 'Light 2' layer as Normal, so it is all black again with a few white spots.
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_76498_011NormalMode_122_530lo

Now go to Menu Options again, go to Filter > Other > Maximum. This time make the Maximum 5!
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_76501_011SetOtherMaximum5_122_588lo

Now add another Gaussian Blur, also of 5 or something around 5.
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_76506_011SetGausBlurAgain5orso_122_354lo

Now set this layer as 'SCREEN'! LOL wow alot of glow!! (Too much glow lol!! WTF)
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_76512_011SetAsScreenLoL_122_679lo


This next step is pretty cool. I used to mess around with those two layers the whole time (light 1 and 2), now I just do this:

Change the OPACITY of the Light 2 layer to around 50, so that the glow DECREASES by 50%. Should look better IMO. You can change this to whatever you like, 50, 60, 40, whatever you feel looks best for the screenshot.
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_76719_012SetOpacity50ForGloves_122_836lo

Do the same for the Light 1 Layer, select it and change the opacity to around 50. Looks better right? Well I thought so.
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_76720_012SetOpacity50Light1Too_122_1162lo
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Butoden

Butoden


Male Number of posts : 79
Age : 37
Location : Netherlands, Feyenoord! :p
Registration date : 2007-11-13

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PostSubject: Re: Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide   Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide EmptySun Dec 02, 2007 2:47 am

Now we are going to wrap this up. That means finish it. And about time too. Select the 'Background' Layer again.
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_76725_013WrapUp_122_1186lo

Now go to the Menu Options and under Image you will find Adjustments > Auto Levels, Auto Contrast and Auto Color. Do all three of them, my screenie came out alot more BLUE then I expected, so if you do not like what these auto things do to your screenshot you might as well skip them. Wink I didn't though.
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_76726_014AdjustmentsAutoLvCnCo_122_137lo

Now we will add some Grain to it, this is basically little particles every where. Maybe you won't like this either, if you dont, you can always undo steps with CTRL+ALT+Z (which will do a step backwards).

Find Grain in the Menu Options as you can see below:
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_77147_015TextureGrain_122_840lo

Now DECREASE the INTENSITY to like 10 or else your screenshot will look seriously bad as you will see in the little example window when you do this yourself. So make it like 10 or so.
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_77153_015GrainIntensity10ormessup_122_1000lo



Now we will add a cute border to the pic. Cute?! A RLY COOL border! Here is what you do:


Create a new layer by clicking that little button in the Layer Menu:
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_77307_016CreateNewLayout_122_644lo

Drag this layer to the top, above all other layers like this:
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_77308_016DragItToTop_122_554lo

Now you go to the Menu Options and you select all:
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_77311_016SelectAll_122_439lo

Go to Select > Modify > Border.
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_77313_016SelectModifyBorder_122_521lo

Easy right? The size of the border. I made mine like 10. I wanted to make it bigger, but it would cut off my cool Orc boots, so think about how thick you want the border to be.
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_77314_016BorderWidth10_122_623lo


Now we will color the border. Select the Pencil Tool:
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_77541_017PencilTool_122_408lo

Select a color. Black is usually a good pick. Or white for instance. Or red if you have a screenshot in a cool place such as Valakas Lair or blue if you are underwater, etc. I picked black. I dont think you can go wrong with black. Sometimes a wrong colored border can really mess up the overall look of the picture and take away the attention so careful what color you pick. (black rules)
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_77543_017PickANiceColor_122_531lo

Now take a big sized pencil diameter!! I picked 300! Woohoo! Excellent!
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_77544_018BigBrush_122_1032lo

Now start coloring the border =D If the diameter is so big, you wont miss a spot Wink If you find out later that you missed a spot you will slap yourself in disbelief.
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_77545_018ColorITBigSize_122_18lo



Now we will sign our picture ;p Well I like to sign my creations because it's like a painting and painters signed their paintings too so imma sign my screenies!! And so should you because it is fun and you can choose your own font and add your own little style to it this way. Man I said that so nice lol.


Select the Text Tool or whatever it is called in the Toolbar. It has a big T, so I don't think you can miss it:
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_77843_019SignIt1_122_488lo

Click anywhere in the screen and start typing your name. I like to add the little ~ to it which basically means 'from' I guess. So it says 'From Butoden'... or whatever, look:
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_77844_019SignIt2_122_449lo

If you can't see the text, make sure you drag the Text Layer above all the others.
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_77844_019SignIt3_122_666lo

Use the Move Tool in your Toolbar to move the text to a different location. I usually place it bottomright. Make sure you have the text layer selected when you start moving.
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_77847_019SignIt4_122_593lo

I like to change the opacity to like 66% to make the text a little bit see-trough, it kind of looks like a watermark this way. Experiment with the text to create your very own style!!
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_77848_019SignIt5_122_689lo


Now we will save the screenshot as a JPEG.

So go to the Menu Options and select Save for Web...
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_78235_020SaveForWeb_122_937lo

You will come in a menu kind of like this:
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_78236_020SaveScreen_122_905lo

Now make sure the QUALITY = AT MAXIMUM and click Save
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_78242_020SaveQualityHigh_122_784lo

And your screenshot is born. Congratulations.

Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_73094_001ShotOriginal_122_1036lo
^ OLD & NEW v
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide Th_78242_021-Finish_122_1130lo
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Butoden

Butoden


Male Number of posts : 79
Age : 37
Location : Netherlands, Feyenoord! :p
Registration date : 2007-11-13

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PostSubject: Re: Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide   Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide EmptySun Dec 02, 2007 2:59 am

If you have any questions make sure to ask so I can put them here in the special FAQ Section of this guide.

Q: How long did you take to do this?
A: About 3 hours.

Q: Why is it so long? I am not going to read all of this lol!
A: Well then you are lazy man. Seriously, it might look real big, but go trough it once when you are bored and you should be able to remember at least a few steps (like the beginning and maybe some things like the border and stuff).

Q: Man, can you make this screenshot look rly cool for me plzz men pl0x?
A: Try it yourself with the guide and then show me the image if it isn't turning out the way it is suppose to.

Q: Why you make this guide? You are retard?
A: Knowledge is gathered by sharing and by sharing knowledge with the clan the clan will become smarter and by becoming smarter you depend less on others Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide 807372

Q: Man why you put this effect in here? It ruins my screenie!
A: Well if you feel like a certain effect ruins your screenshot (such as Auto-Levels, or the glow effect or the border) then you are free NOT to add them of course! It's your choice and your screenie after all.

Q: Why do we have to click thumbnails every time? Why not just link to full image. It's annoying.
A: Well the hotlinking didn't work out very well, so this is the only solution atm. Sorry.

Ah I just made these questions up, so in case anyone wanted to know, the answers are already there.
Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide 306318 Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide 245528 Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide 62040 Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide 206545 Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide 540942 Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide 7920 Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide 310972 Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide 766603 Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide 511685 Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide 602269 Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide 237645
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Sixpak




Male Number of posts : 24
Age : 33
Location : Nederland
Registration date : 2007-09-30

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PostSubject: Re: Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide   Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide EmptySun Dec 02, 2007 8:10 pm

I tried but i think i did something wrong Razz


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Butoden

Butoden


Male Number of posts : 79
Age : 37
Location : Netherlands, Feyenoord! :p
Registration date : 2007-11-13

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PostSubject: Re: Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide   Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide EmptySun Dec 02, 2007 9:22 pm

Well I think you did a great job, can't really tell if you did anything WRONG, only thing I see is that the whole pic is a little too much GREEN as you can see. This is because of the step Auto-Levels, Auto-Color, Auto-Contrast. So if you think that the image is being ruined by this then you can always UNDO them with for CTRL+ALT+Z.
And also I think the names Darji and Sixy are included in the glow, you should only include the armor pieces of ur char, now it looks as if the names Darji and Sixy are glowing ;p Next time make sure they are also painted out of the light 1 and light 2 layers.
Also one more quick note is that you didn't mind very much the background blurry, like around the head of Darji is a sharp background wall, with a smaller blur tool diameter you could blur this too so it looks a bit more uhm real I guess? Very Happy But other then that great first attempt.
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Sixpak




Male Number of posts : 24
Age : 33
Location : Nederland
Registration date : 2007-09-30

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PostSubject: Re: Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide   Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide EmptyMon Dec 03, 2007 2:49 pm

Cool thnx next time il make a cool picture i try to perfect it Smile

About the green thing i will try to undo it when i have time i wil post the new screenshot Smile

Thnx for the help Wink
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Darji

Darji


Male Number of posts : 15
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PostSubject: Re: Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide   Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide EmptyMon Dec 03, 2007 5:40 pm

What do you think?

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Butoden

Butoden


Male Number of posts : 79
Age : 37
Location : Netherlands, Feyenoord! :p
Registration date : 2007-11-13

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PostSubject: Re: Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide   Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide EmptyMon Dec 03, 2007 10:50 pm

Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide 527840 Wow nice screenie, you can rly see nicely the glowing armor pieces liek even on the tips of the ponytails of the dwarf! XD Looks pretty good, this is a good example because the screenshot also becomes much brighter and things are better visible, thats what we wanna achieve :p that and overall prettyness Butoden's Step By Step to Photoshop Greatness Guide 162217
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