texture

Depth Maps Become Reality

Submitted by deke on 10 March 2011 - 12:15am.

In the entirely artificial digital sense, of course.

I'm midway thru recording Part 2 of my Photoshop CS5 Extended One-on-One series for my beloved video publisher, lynda.com. And, lo, it will go by the name 3D Objects. Photoshop CS5 Extended offers six classes of 3D objects: postcards (flat images projected into 3D space), preset shapes (spheres, cubes, but you can make more), imported models (from a real modeling program), 3D volumes (of use primarily for medical folk), the wide world of Repoussé (which I highlighted in this week's Deke's Techniques), and objects projected from depth maps (as I'll explain).

The upshot is that the Photoshop we know and love is secretly a 3D beast. Seriously, the stuff you can do with it is as bottomless as it is topless. (And side-to-sideless, too.) Just today, I was exploring the world of depth maps. These damn things have been around forever---they're responsible for those stereoscopic dolphin images that you have to uncross your eyes to see---so I was initially a bit bored. But in truth, depth maps are awesome architectural tools. For example, I built this:

Photoshop CS5 Extended: 3D Objects, "Depth Maps"

What the Sam Heck is it? I think it's an alien temple. You know, you press a brick and it opens. But I really don't know. I'm still exploring. Read more » 

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Deke’s Techniques 007: Blending Textures onto a Face

Submitted by deke on 15 February 2011 - 12:15pm.
Deke’s Techniques 007: Blending Textures onto a Face

Today's technique is all about mapping a couple of textures onto a portrait photograph. The textures in question happen to be a bit of alabaster and a travertine tile (the images hail from the Fotolia image library), but they could be anything. And it's all accomplished using Photoshop's advanced blending options. Read more » 

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Deke's Techniques 002: Branding Type on a Texture

Submitted by deke on 11 January 2011 - 7:00am.
Deke's Techniques 002: Branding Type on a Texture

Hey gang,

Today, I am on a plane flying halfway across the world on a week-long vacation. But thanks to the miracle of me writing this post four days in advance, I appear to be "here" today. Wherever "here" is.

Anyway, "here's" the thing: Today marks the second in my "never-ending" series of Deke's Techniques. (That's right: I will die, you will die, the human race will die, the robot overlords who destroyed us will die. And yet---I don't understand how---Deke's Techniques will continue. When the Vulcans discover Earth, this is all they will find. I know, when I first heard, I was like: how messed up is that?)

Today's episode is about using type in Photoshop to brand an image. Imagine that your image is a cow or a pig. And the type is a big hot branding iron. Only much gentler on both the giver and receiver. (Come on, no one wants to hurt livestock! Unless, you know, if a cheerful young fattened pig accidentally died, in which case I'd totally throw down for a plate-full of its bacon.) Here's Colleen's official description: Read more » 

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Photoshop CS5 One-on-One: Advanced Goes Live

Submitted by deke on 16 August 2010 - 12:15am.

Some of you have been asking when my Photoshop CS5 One-on-One: Advanced series is coming out. And I was all prepared to tell you this Friday. But lynda.com, being the incredible juggernaut of a video publisher that they are, began releasing it today. Chapters 13 thru 18 are up this very second. That's more than 100 movies, so it should keep you occupied for now. (If not, I totally suck.) The remaining Chapters 19 thru 24 will be up in 10 days.

Here's a live-action frame from the series. My director told me that, in retrospect, my spendy Elie Tahari shirt "looked a little disco." Let me assure you that this is one of the best shirts I've ever owned. It's a matte forest green with some excellent under-collar and inner-sleeve highlights. In the video, I don't look disco, I look positively wet. Meaning that I glisten. Like someone is misting me. Which is not necessarily what you want in a training video. But it's what you get.

Advanced

That said, who gives a tinker's gumph what I look like? Read more » 

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Photoshopping the Great Masters

Submitted by deke on 14 May 2009 - 12:15am.
School of Athens

dekePod Episode 016: Hello, friend. Let's you and I get all collegiate and stuff and engage in some intellectually stimulating free-word association.

For example, I say High Renaissance. You say, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael. Very good!

But you're not done. You say, an unrivaled time of creative energy and unabashedly accurate representation of the human form. Ooh, I like that, keep it coming. The advent of secular humanism, say you, The rebirth of Classical Ideas! Read more » 

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