Martini Hour 012, In Which Deke (with help from John and Russell) Whips Up Layers of Photoshop Goodness

Submitted by colleen on 28 April 2009 - 12:26am.

You know, it occurs to me now that somewhere along the way I lost control of this show. Perhaps it was the 43:00 mark of this particular episode. But if losing control means having Deke, along with Adobe's John Nack and Russell Brown, go into a free-for-all discussion of Photoshop layers, well then control is overrated. Bring on the (subltly layered) chaos.

Yes, the theme this week is layers. And since I couldn't come up with a layered gin-based drink (do olives count as a layer?), I asked Deke to model this week's logo after the classic layered dessert Jello 1-2-3. Listen as the knowledge of our Photoshop experts separate itself into the foamy, bubbly, and jellowy (strawberry-flavored) layers of goodness.

Interested? How can you resist? Here's the regular-quality (192kbps) audio file. You can stream, or for best results, right-click and choose Download or Save.

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Comments

Hi colleen, Thank you for

Submitted by Dutchbox on 16 June 2010 - 9:35am.

Hi colleen,

Thank you for the post. Stunning design! The blend of colors and effects looks perfect to be a banner of a site. Have made one for my self and very excited to make it live.

Keep it up guys, you make our lives more easier with your designs!

-Angella Wilson
Blogger at How Can I Get Pregnant

Layer Sets

Submitted by jfrancis on 30 April 2009 - 5:55pm.
I remember PS 2.5 http://www.digitalartform.com/archives/2005/07/american_cinema.html http://www.digitalartform.com/archives/2005/06/newsweek_intera.html And I remember as layers came along, and then layer sets, I always sort of hoped that the stack was an arithmetic expressions, and the folders were the parentheses. That would hide a bunch of your work and make it impossible to see your whole 'tree' at a glance, but at least you could group things so that (these three layers) multiplied by (this layer screened with that layer) screened with (this layer overlaid by that one)

Component Code Names

Submitted by Jeff_Tranberry on 30 April 2009 - 10:21am.
The component code names come from the Minnesota engineering team, specifically Tim Wright, who's a huge Coen Bros. fan (The Coens are originally from MN). AFAIK - There is no hard limit on the number of layers you can have in a document. You're only limited by the amount of RAM in your machine. The other big transformative layers change was between CS and CS2 when we introduced the ability to select more than one layer at a time and the ability to drag and drop all kinds of layer object types that weren't supported previously. ImageReady CS was sort of a test bed for the idea before we did the work in Photoshop.

Bob Staake is the PS 3 artist in question.

Submitted by devdonnelly on 30 April 2009 - 2:47am.
Great show as always! I love when John Nack revealed that Adobe's developers use Coen Brother's film titles used as PhotoShop Library code names. Now, that tickles both my digital imaging AND film nerd passions. Also the artist that John Nack mentioned who does the New Yorker covers in Photoshop 3 is Bob Staake. Here is a great youtube clip of him creating a cover in PS 3. It's pretty amazing actually: http://tinyurl.com/4jlgq3 Thanks for the great show. I hope that sometime you'll have a Tiki-bar themed Martini Hour with Mai Tai's or Zombies. The tie in could be blend modes, you use a blender for fruity drinks and blend modes blend pixels. It's a stretch I know. But I would like to know if blend modes work differently (for printing anyway) between PhotoShop, Illustrator and InDesign. Each one has transparency options, so which is best to use for a final print job.

Minor Whoops

Submitted by goshad on 29 April 2009 - 3:59pm.
Just thought I'd let you know the link for the high quality file for episode 12 actually links to the 192kbps file. (its the same file for both 192 and 320) Great!!! series, btw. Thanks for all the effort, it really is appreciated.

Rather major problem

Submitted by deke on 30 April 2009 - 1:29am.
if you want the high bandwidth piece. But it's fixed now. Thx for the heads up!

Air Force One Photo Op

Submitted by alansim1970 on 29 April 2009 - 9:54am.
As a scared-out-of-my-pants-on-Moday-morning inhabitant of lower Manhattan, I was wondering how much it would cost to have a self-appointed digital imaging expert (like our beloved Deke) to composite a picture of Air Force One against a NYC skyline? According to the USAF the cost of the flights over Manhattan and Washington DC will cost over $300,000. I'm sure Deke could knock out a pretty convincing composite in 10 minutes. He could save the Feds quite a bit of money assuming he charges under $30K a minute. Alan

Sadly, I, like every one else

Submitted by deke on 30 April 2009 - 10:33pm.
Received no call. But in all fairness, I was away from my desk that morning. Background info from a savvy pair of Jo(h)ns.

All Our Base Are Belongs To Youse

Submitted by Petra on 29 April 2009 - 7:17am.
I'm loving the new fabfour format : you guys create a great dynamic. :-) The conversation's crisp yet informal, convivial while informative, cool 21st Century Creative High Geekness: ...'transporting "wayfaring pilgrims",' to quote Leunig, "away from the bad mood of the world to the peaceful shores of [dekePod's Martini Hour]; a small, mystical and beautiful place of sanity". "Take me!" say we, say "Oui!". :-D Also, I think I may rename my own "L'Adobe Le Bridge" to, simply, "Fish". That'll skin the cat! ...the beauty is the power. There is no downside. Not even in complexity :-D Thanks again, dekeTeam! ...how I've missed y'all.. Oh! btw - I'd love to see separate masks for each filter, blend mode, fx, etc, that gets added to one smart object layer. & lol@twittering while listening. I do not do that, honest... Cin cin!

Pillows

Submitted by stevenemartin on 28 April 2009 - 3:19pm.
Here's a little something to add to the lounge http://bit.ly/MfZ8t

I love 'em!

Submitted by deke on 29 April 2009 - 1:16am.
The entire suite for $80 -- what a bargain!