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.

Environmental Toy Exclusively at Toys R Us

So I know probably everyone has seen these amazing wooden toys by Take-g.

Simple unbelievable!


But now Imaginarium has taken it upon themselves to bring it to the masses.
Although it's not the superior craftsmanship of Take-g's, the feeling of his toys is reflected in these wooden vehicles. I think it's really cool to see such nice wooden toys sold in a larger chain such as Toys R Us. Let's face it not all of us can shovel out upwards of 6,000USD it requires to buy and authentic Take-g wooden toy. Not to mention these new ones are environmentally conscious and the wood used is grown in sustainable nurseries. Well, as environmentally conscious a mass produced product could be I suppose ^_^. I found these posted on I heart wood but you can check out the original post here.


Sometimes it's best to keep things simple in this toy world of lights, ic's, and plastic.

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.

Updates and Upincomings

Hey everyone, good news for me but better for you all! I have gotten a former professor, current coworker, and now friend interested in collaborating on some tutorial posts. He has excellent exercises to help warm your muscles up for sketching. That's right people sketching is no different than athletics, singing, or any other activity using your muscles, you gotta warm them up so they perform at their best! We'll be recording his demo and I will post it as a series of warm ups and muscle memory exercise videos. He has some wonderful theories on sketching so stay tuned.


Also I would like to introduce my new "feature" posts. Every month or two I will feature a new professional in the field of toys. This can range from and illustrator, product designer, creative engineer, packaging designer, who knows! I have a few interviews in the works so I will post them as they come together.


In final news I wanted to give a quick shout out to one of the blog followers Stephanie Lemoine. The company I work for had a focus group today and the mothers were asked to bring their child's favorite toy in. Well, one of the mothers held her favorite up and I said "Hey I just met the girl that worked on that product!". The product was the Yo Gabba Gabba Boom Box Dance Party! Super cool toy so go check out her portfolio here. And to anyone else who may have worked on that great job :)


As always thanks for stopping by

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.

Coolest toy since a stick and a hoop?

I heard about this product from a coworker and I didn't believe it. But this thing is real and it's amazing. Winner of multiple awards including Most Innovative Toy of the Year, Electronic Entertainment Toy of the Year, and Game of the year this thing will blow your mind. No pun intended.