Help Discussion

Hmm..I can't even figure out how layers work. Umm...the picture I'm trying to play with just has a white background, no decorations or anything. How many layers should I use? I read the four tutorials that I found a link to, but I'm so clueless about this. I don't even know how to tell if the changes that I make on one layer are affecting the rest of the set. And I can't tell how whatever I'm playing with is affecting whichever layer I've chosen. I don't know what I'm trying to do, so I don't think I'm asking the right questions.

Here's what I do to get started when I use a picture with a white background and I decide to be lazy and not render it.

1. I pick two colors from the picture with the color picker (eyedropper tool) and put the colors in place of where you see the the black and white colored sqares. Usually one light color and one dark color work best.

2. Then I go to Filter-->Render Clouds. Put this layer under your picture with the white background.

3. Now go to your picture with the white background and right click on that layer and select Blending Options. Go to Blend Mode and experiment with the different modes and opacity %.

4. Add another layer between your cloud render and the picture and add in some brush work. Have you downloaded any brushes yet? If not go to deviant art and search for PhotoShop brushes and you'll find some.

5. You just keep adding more layers (multiple one of your original picture, brushes, textures, etc.) until you are happy with the result.

6. Add Text on top of everything and maybe a border and you are done.

hi guys
i've joined few days ago - thanks to halite75 for inviting me to join - i have a question for you - i've started graphics 3 month ago for the fun and i've been told that we should be careful with transparent sets so they can match both dark and light backgrounds - however, how to do so it matches light bg ?

Well, for a transparent sig to look good on a light colored background, you wouldn't want the main detail work to be in white or a color really close to white because they will be hard to see. I would say, that the best thing to do so a transparent sig will look good on both a light and dark background is to have your detail work work be in a medium (not too light, not too dark) color.

thanks Halite - i was afraid it was more complicated

here i come again for some help - i'm about to render my first pic n was wondering how to make it on a transparent bg ? i kinda figured out how to render but what about the bg ?

When you start erasing, you should start to see the white and gray squares show up. As long a you see the white and gray squares for the background, it will show up as transparent when you save it as png file.

it depends on how you render.
do you use erasure, pentool, lasso tool, layer mask or magic wand?
if you use erasure the you can immidiatly see the sqaures which show transparency..if you use a tool which makes a selection then you just cut out the selected bg. (ctrl x)

@ halite : thanks i'll show you what the result is once i'm done with it

@ PrinceTheRipper : thanks for your answer - haven't started yet but i think i'll use the eraser - hope i won't mess up the whole stuff - this one will be my very first one

if you wanna use an earsure you should probably use a layer mask..it makes sure that you won't loose parts of the image.
here's a tutorial for using layer mask which i made.

@ PrinceTheRipper : aw thanks a lot - i'll be sue to read it and use it - i'm just done with the render - i'll post it on the feedback thread with the original pic so you guys can see - thank you so much for the help