Lesson 1

These pages serve not only to post the homework, but also as my notes taken while reading the material and a repository for various experiments I did while working through it. If we've been in classes together before, you know that I'm a bit driven. In fact, when people ask about my educational background, the conversation goes something like this:

"I have an OCD in LLL."

"Huh?"

"An Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in Life-Long Learning"

So, for those who are interested in saving time, I'll try to remember to post links to the homework section (at the bottom, just as it appears in the lesson) at the top of the page.

Homework

Styles Neon Text

Installing Extra Filters and Textures from the CD

Not yet.

Adobe Color Picker vs. The System Color Picker

Thanks for the info.

Clipping Groups, Clipping masks

Working with CS3, I got a photo of a butterfly (shown in top row, below), copied it and pasted it into a new file. It came in on a separate layer. I moved to the background layer, chose a font and typed the word "Butterflies", adjusted the font size to completely fill the width of the photo, then used Ctrl-T to stretch the type to completely fill the height of the photo. In the Layers palette, I then right-clicked and chose Create Clipping Mask from the drop-down menu. The result is shown in bottom row, below..

A neat trick. Also, when I wanted to show the entire butterfly photo, I right-clicked on the layer with the photo, selected "Release Clipping Mask", and the butterfly was whole again.

Special thanks to Billy for suggesting that I add a stroke to the letters to better contrasts them with the background.

The Eyedropper Tool Trick

Thanks for the information.

Duplicating Images Tips and Tricks

When I'm making an illustration which is fairly complex and want to save the 14 layers I've done so far and treat them as a single group, I use the Image > Duplicate with Duplicate Merged Layers Only. Then I can go on with the rest, using that single layer as one of the composition elements. I don't remember when Adobe introduced the concept of Layer Groups, but CS3 has it (the pull-down menu at the top right of the Layers palette). For the way I work, this accomplishes the same thing (getting a complex object into a single item), but allows me to go back and add Layer Styles and Blending Modes to layers within the single item; this I could not do when I duplicated the merged layers.

History Logging

I had never noticed this before in the preferences window. Thank you. This is excellent information.

It's Easter and The Eggs are Hidden!

Easter eggs from CS3:

How to get this in CS3	What the result is
Pull down the Palette Options menu from the Layers panel. Alt-click on Palette Options, the last choice on the menu.
Pull down Help. Ctrl-click on About Photoshop ...
Crazy Quotes doesn't appear to work in CS3. Ctrl-clicking on the Version number just closes the window. So does Atl-clicking and Shift-clicking.

Transferring Activation: What to do if you get a new computer

At right is what I see on CS3 when I pull down the Help menu. If I choose "Registration", I get a new registration form with no indication that I can transfer the activation to another machine. Has Adobe, in what appears to be a continuing war on legitimate users in the name of anti-piracy, removed this feature from CS3?

The Scrubby Slider on Steroids

This avoids having to use the pull-down slider under the name of the field; at least, in the case of the Opacity field. Further investigation is called for here. What other fields have scrubby sliders?

Working with Layer styles: Adding, editing, creating and saving sets

On another page, which (I hope) will open in a new window is a catalog of layer styles available without charge from various places on the Internet. Click here to see the page. This will function as my catalog of layer styles and their sources.

Part of this lesson introduced me to the idea that contours could also be saved and shared. So I went looking for some. Click here to see the contours I've found, saved, and catalogs.

Copy and pasting layer styles, from the note to the text, produced this.	Filter > Distort > Polar Coordinates > Rectangular to Polar on the Pattern Layer produced this:

My layer styles have been uplooaded to the Student Hosting File Manager area, as indicated. The names are GRCText and GRCTiles (both .asl files). They look like this:

An Introduction to Channels: Neon type effect

Neon Text Example following the instructions (for the most part: I had to use a different font)