dekePod

In this week's video, I show you how to create professional-quality movie poster credits in Adobe Illustrator. Now in case you're thinking, "Hmm, gosh, I don't give a crap about making movie credits," well, that's not really the point. And now, in case you're thinking, "No really, Deke, when I say I don't give a crap, I mean, literally, I would not give you an ounce of my own crap to learn how to make movie poster credits," yes, you've made yourself clear. (And crudely so. You're normally so nice. What is with you today?) But here's the thing. Read more » 

As those of you who work regularly in Photoshop know, inverting is a precarious proposition. Consider this: Have you ever drawn a path outline with the pen tool? In the spirit of making things obvious, Photoshop represents the path by inverting the composite image. Where the image is white, the path appears black; where the image is black, the path appears white. And where the image is gray, the path is the inversion of gray, which is---oh, that's right---gray! And because you can't see gray-on-gray, the damn thing goes invisible. And your typical image is gray, or near gray, a lot.

So obviously, Photoshop's design choice where path outlines is concerned is a mistake. But now let's put you in charge of the design choice. And let's imagine that you want to create text that inverts in front of a composite image. And you don't want to make the same mistake Photoshop makes. While working inside Photoshop. What do you do?

You make text that inverts unambiguously. Where the image is white, the text is black; where the image is black, the text is white. And where the image is gray, or near gray, the text provides as much contrast as possible.

That's what this week's technique is all about. And as if that wasn't rambling enough, here's the official description from lynda.com (which Colleen tells me is much less self-inverted and ambiguous): Read more » 

If you scroll to the bottom of the home page and click on the last » button, you'll be taken to the first test articles I created for this site, "Creating a Photo-Realistic Line Drawing, Part 1," and the same, "Part 2."

Frankly, I love those techniques so much that A) I wrote them up as an exercise in my book Photoshop CS5 One-on-One and B) I have long felt a persistent desire to document them in video. Which is precisely what I do today.

Here's the official description from lynda.com: Read more » 

It's one thing to impeccably mask an image into a new scene. But it's another to get the masked image to interact with its new environment. And oftentimes what that masked image needs is a shadow.

In this week's technique, I show you how to capture and cast a shadow from one scene into another.

Garsh, this is a yummy one. Here's the official description from lynda.com: Read more » 

Hello everyone. Happy New Year, and welcome to the first anniversary of Deke's Techniques. I began this weekly video series on January 4 of 2011, and I am assured by the good folks at lynda.com that it will last well into the future.

What better way to celebrate the outset of 2012 than with a wedding photo? And not just any photo, but a candid shot with a bunch of unwanted people in the background. My friend, Mary (the bride), asked me to remove those interlopers so that she and her groom, Billy, can enjoy some much-needed time alone. Which is exactly what I do in this video.

Here's the official description from lynda.com: Read more »