Photoshop Quickie

Quick demo on matte vs gloss clichés.

sketchatoy sixteen from sketchatoy on Vimeo.

Photoshop Styles Tutorial

sketchatoy fourteen from sketchatoy on Vimeo.

Hey everyone this a new technique I have been using recently since things are very busy right now at work and I need to get lots of concepts out quickly while maintaining the quality expected...this is how I do it. From beginning to end this rendering probably took me all of 15min. You get something pretty good looking quickly using these styles, so enjoy!

Plush Rendering Take Two

sketchatoy twelve from sketchatoy on Vimeo.

As mentioned is sketchatoy ten, there are many, many, ways to render plush. I'm currently working on a little side project and I needed to do a concept rendering to use in a pitch so I saw it as the perfect opportunity for a long over due tutorial!

This technique is very similar but instead of using the grass brush to create your texture, I am using an actual photograph of a texture (in this case fleece) and then using a grass brush eraser to define my edges.

Here is a link to the actual image I used so you can all follow along and experiment for yourselves. Remember, my character is wood so he's all brown hues, but you can make that texture any color you want! So have fun and if any of you do experiment send the results my way and I will post them.

Plush Penguin

Sketchatoy Ten from sketchatoy on Vimeo.

It's finally here! So how do you render up plush in Photoshop? Well, there are many ways and this is just one of them but it's a great technique. It's fast, easy, and there's no customizing/creating brushes or finding textures online.

This tutorial was done by another designer and he did a great job! I wanted him to do it since he was the person who showed me and I truly appreciate the help. It's always best to have multiple angles and learn different techniques since there is always more than one way of doing something.

If any of you have an idea for a tutorial or would like to create your own and share it, please e-mail me at sketchatoy@gmail.com and I'll see if it's postable!

Speaker Holes

sketchatoy nine from sketchatoy on Vimeo.

So I know that with toys music and sounds is used quite often. So here's a quick tutorial on how to add a some speaker holes quickly to your Photoshop rendering. Enjoy.

Semi-realistic Photoshop Rendering

sketchatoy seven from sketchatoy on Vimeo.

This tutorial is a long one I know but I tried to pack it full of tips! I’ve gathered several tricks that I have learned from friends and colleagues over the years and joined them with a few of my own. I know the product is ugly but I designed it on the spot so please concentrate on the content and less on the design.

Also, you may remember a post a while back on rendering plush in Photoshop. I posted a rendering I did of the duck sketch but I’ve been waiting for my friend to do the tutorial since he was the one who taught me the trick! So please stay tuned for more tutorials in Photoshop rendering and some in Illustrator.

Quick Photoshop Techniques

sketchatoy six from sketchatoy on Vimeo.

Here's a tutorial on adding some color and value to a sketch to get a quick rendering. The video is actual time so without concentrating on talking and explaining this should take no more than 10min to add Photoshop. (Sketch approx 5min) This is a great way to express your sketches in a little more depth and prepare some variations for a final presentation rendering. This was a request by a reader so I hope it helps! Also please leave comments on any tricks you all may have when adding color quickly in Photoshop.

This technique is going from a thumbnail (approx 1inch) to a loose rendering. I will do another tutorial using a tighter sketch and then an in depth "photo realistic" rendering. So please check back!

Editing your Product Photography

sketchatoy five from sketchatoy on Vimeo.

Here's a trick I learned that I know will be useful to those who are working on portfolios or creating presentations using unedited product photography.

How does it work? Well in a nutshell, you simply select the tool, then select the color from the background using alt (mac the option key) that you want to delete and the eraser will only delete that color.

*Just a warning, this isn't the use all fail proof tool, it will only work so easily if you've shot your product with a consistent background. The results wont be the same if you're shooting your product in say the woods with trees in the background then want it on a white backdrop, that's another much longer tutorial.

Thank you all!

Hey I just want to drop a quick line and thank everyone for the great responses! :) I am going to try my best to post everyday. Well, lets shoot for every other day...

So this is unrelated to toy but tonight I went to an AIGA event and got to see the amazingly talented Kyle Cooper talk about his work. You may not know his name, I didn't, but you definitely know his work. He's responsible for over 150 film title sequences including Seven, The Spiderman's, and most recently Sherlock Holmes. Anyways, go check out some of his work on you tube it's inspiring to say the least.

Now onto today's post! I've been slightly busy so I've decided to link to a tutorial from Creative Techs I find super useful! I use this a lot so I think I will piggy back on this tutorial and maybe create my own down the road on how this is used on toy.



And if anyone has something they'd like to learn, or teach, shoot me an e-mail and I'll work a post around it or post the contribution. Thanks again.

Deleting White from a Sketch (preserving transparency)

sketchatoy three from sketchatoy on Vimeo.

So how is this useful? well watch the video and find out! I love this trick , I learned it a few years back and I use it everytime I scan a sketch into photoshop to add some color.

This is also really useful if you've done a butch of sketches using different colored pencils and you want them all the same light blue or whatever color you choose.

Deleting White

PC
Adobe Photoshop CS4 (Ctrl+Alt+2)
Adobe Photoshop CS,CS2,CS3 (Ctrl+Alt+~)

Why it changed I don't know?

Mac
Sorry but I don't know if it's the same but this should work for you. Here's the menu path.

Select>Color Range>Select: drop down menu>Highlights (or eye drop the white on your canvas.)>Ok.

P.S. I've resolved the sound issues. I bought an adaptor for my Xbox headset...i may look ridiculous but it keeps my hands free and it sounds great! Thanks for your patience.

What's Next?

Next there will be a "How to Render Plush in Photoshop" tutorial. I'm not sure if I will be doing this or another designer, however the image there is an example of the technique I've learned. So stay tuned!