Thumbnails for Photoshop files in Windows

Everybody know that Windows use a default icon for PSD files, it is really disturbing when you have a lot of Photoshop files because you cant choice the one you like just looking at the thumbnails.

With this small file you will have customized thumbnail views of your Photoshop files.

Instrucctions to install :

1. Download Psicon from HERE and unzip it with Winzip.
2. Put the file psicon.dll in the folder (create it if it doesnt appear):
   ‘C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Shell’.
3. Double click on the other file into the zip: Photoshop_thumbnail.reg and accept.
4. Then inside of any Windows folder just activate the thumbnail views.

PS: Registry Editing is a black art. Use this unders your responsability.

Related Post:

1. Thumbnails for Illustrator files in Windows
2. SuperIcon V3: Thumbnails for Photoshop and Illustrator files
3. Photoshop: PSD 75% lighter

Vectorial illustration with Illustrator

It’s time to write a tutorial about vectorial illustration. In this post i’ll explain the process i followed at the time of designing by order (from SOSFactory) the mascot in vector format of Twisted Monkey Studios, producers of horror films.

www.twistedmonkeystudios.com

Ingredients:

1. Paper and pencil.
2. Scaner.
3. Photoshop.
4. Illustrator.
5. Silhouette (plugin for Illustrator).
6. Basic concepts of Photoshop and Illustrator.
7. A lot of patience.
8. Optional: Digitalizer tablet.

Briefing

The first thing to do is know our client. That’s why we have a tool called Briefing, which is a serie of key questions to know the company and it’s needs. We can do it in a more or less formal way.

In this case we’re going to design a character for a horro movies producer; they wanted a monkey as the mascot, but the tipic nice monkey. We thought in the idea of making it’s clothes a straight jacket and to have a knife with blood… a lot of blood. It had to look nice, but intriguing at the same time.

Traditional drawing and Photoshop retouches

I always advice to start any design the traditional way, with paper and pencil, specially if it’s an illustration. As good as your Wacom tablet may be, it’ll never be as accurate as the normal pencil.

Traditional drawing. The image at the left is my pencil drawing, i start to sketch with a red pencil, and when i’m happy with the results i remark the lines with a graphite pencil. As you can see, is more a sketch than a finished drawing, unfortunately my line quality isn’t as good as comics professionals, but you don’t have to worry because that’s why we have the computer. The important thing is to have the concepts well assimilated, and to apply them to the character we want to design.

Traditional drawing at the left, photoshop retouches at the right.

Photoshop Retouches. When i get something decent as a start point, i scan it from Photoshop and start to move things, play with the face expressions, the pose… until i get something i like (right image)

Take a look at how the character changes during the process, when you don’t have very clear what you want to do it’s better to start with anything and then retouch until you get what you’re looking for… don’t get sad if you can’t do it from the first attempt, it’s the most common thing to happen.

Evolution of the personality of our character

Cleaning and inking in Photoshop

Cleaning. I already have the base for the character, now with my digitalizer tablet i start to clean the sketch from Photoshop, asigning different line weights (explanation down).

Cleaning with digitalizer tablet at the right, inking with photoshop at the
left

Inking. The next step is to ink our character (right image), the first thing say is that it’s very important to use high resolution (5000×5000 pixels) for several reasons:

1. It’s more comfortable.
2. If later we reduce the design, the smaller mistakes wont be noticed.
3. If the work is the same, let’s do it big, that way we can also print.
4. When vectorizing it we’ll get more accurate lines.

We have 3 types of lines (take a look to the final inking a bit down):

1. Contour: those are the bigger lines.
2. Area delimitators: example. the inferior limit of the jacket, medium thickness.
3. Intern lines: the line that marks the cheek, those are the most thin ones.
4. Transition lines: they start as the contour and then get in the design. We make it thick and then thiner as it gets in, as the line in the chin.

What we shouldn’t do:

1. Make shadows with lines: we’ll just make the design dirty.
2. Extremely thick lines and without thickness variation.
3. Intern lines too long: this lines are to mark volume, you have to make them in a subtle way, it’s just a guide for when you color.
4. Straight lines: if you take a look, all the lines are slightly curved.
5. Small areas: try that your volumes are as big as possible, otherwise at the time to color you wont have space and it’ll stay flat.

Final inking, it’s very important to modulate the lines correctly.

To get this final inking we have various options:

1. If you’re a drawing professional the best thing to do is use your pencil lines, then simply clean them in Photoshop.
   VIDEOTUTORIAL: Photoshop digital inking 1
2. If like me, your handdraw lines are not too good, we ink the sketch with Photoshop’s vector tools.
   VIDEOTUTORIAL:Photoshop digital inking 2, if you’re not familiarized with the pen tool you should better take a loot at this tutorial about Photoshop basic digital drawing.

Vectorizing with Silhouette from Illustrator

The first thing you need is the plug-in Silhouette for Illustrator, you can download Silhouette here after that decompress it with Winzip and put the file "SilhouettePlugIn.aip" in the plugins folder of Illustrator. Once inside the program you only need to make the silhouette palette visible (Window > Show Shilouette tool settings).

Then save your design from Photoshop to TIFF format (without transparency) and open it in Illustrator.

Then download the VIDEOTUTORIAL where i explain how to vectorize with Silhouette. Here you have a screenshot of the parameters i use:

Now that we have out design vectorized we can edit it until the lines are perfect. I normally add a contour from Illustrator to give a sensation of balance to the design.

*** Note: when you add a contour with Photoshop it rounds the borders, it doesn’t respect the angle details while Illustrator does. Depending on the sensation you want to give to your design you can use one or the other.

*** Note 2: i guess you’ll ask why i have used Photoshop to ink with bitmaps to vectorize it later?, Isn’t it better to use Illustrator directly? it’s a personal choice, these are my reasons:

1. For me Photoshop is more comfortable and quick, Illustrator dessperates me.
2. If you have a digitalizer tablet when using bitmaps you can paint or erase lines by hand, which saves you a lot of time.

Asigning plain colors, gradient and volumes

Plain colors. Now we have our vectorial inking, if you take a look the options of Silhouette are chosen to give us a black silhouette, and a bunch of white pieces on top. Now we only have to fill each white area with the color we want, i usually use medium tones, not too dark or too light. Here’s the color palette i’ve used.

Plain colors

Adding gradients. We have to create gradients of at least two differentiable colors, one dark and one light, but not extremely far away because we’ll later add lights and shades. For now don’t pay too much attention to the gradient direction, we’re just choosing the color tones, later we’ll orientate them to give coherence to the ilumination.

Gradient colors

Cutting the areas. As you have seen the gradient areas are too ample to get good illumination effects. So we have to cut this big areas into smaller volumes /take a look to the image down).

Later we retouch the gradient colors to try to get a coherent illumination, there’s a basic rule very important: next to a dark color there’s always a light color.

I’ve prepared a small VIDEOTUTORIAL to show how it’s done, download it here.

Gradient colors with the areas cut in smaller volumes

Adding shadows and lights

Shadows. We’ll create a layer and put it in Multiply mode, that way we have all the shadow vectors grouped. IMPORTANT: if you make the shadows in normal mode you’ll have to adjust the vectors a lot so you don’t cover the black lines, that’s why we use the Multiply mode, This mode makes transparent on top of the black color.

We simply pick a similar color (sometimes i also use gradient colors) to the one of the background and we make small vectors to mark the areas in the shadows.

Animation so you appreciate the shadows.

Lights. In this case is not essential to use different layer modes, although you can always use the Screen mode to get lighter tones. Observe the animation down here, first i make a soft illumination and later i add some strong light retouches reinforce the contours.

Finales Retouches

Now we only need to add blood in industrial cuantities. For that i used the free Gomedia vectors (if you use them put a link back to their site, you have to be thankful) The blood is added in a layer on top of all the others but down of the roght eye, in Multiply mode.

www.twistedmonkeystudios.com

Observe that in the post i link to other tutorials or artices that cover the different phases of the process, although i know that in suck a complex tutorial i might have forgotten a thousand things to explain, if you have any doubt just comment it, i’ll try to answer as soon as i can and i’ll add it to the tutorial.

Related Post:

1. Vectorizing with Silhouette
2. SuperIcon V3: Thumbnails for Photoshop and Illustrator files
3. Thumbnails for Illustrator files in Windows

8 top questions for newbie designers

A couple of days ago our friend Andreu, SOSNewbie reader, sent me an email with a serie of questions; it’s not the first time that that someone asks them, so i thought in writing this post.

1.- Do i need a degree to work as a designer?

The answer is… depends… on what you want to do, where you want to do it, and how. I think there are several situations:

You want to work as a freelance: the degree will be useless, if someone hires you it’ll be because of your portfolio.

You want to work in a good publicity agency: if it’s a small or good agency, the person in charge of the staff selection will be some expert in design, it’ll mainly look to your portfolio, and maybe some kind of degree too.

You want to be the coffee boy: the person in charge of the staff selection will be an administrative that will revise hundreds of files, it wont look at your portfolio; it’ll only see if you have the degree or not. Unfortunately, the mayority of the work in Spain or South America is like this, looks like in the USA or UK its different (any comments about it are wellcome).

We should also differenciate if you’re going to dedicate to a technic or artistic area. If you want to be a programmer, the degree will probably have more importance than if you want to apply to be an illustrator… there’s no degree to measure art.

2.- Do i need to go to a school or an academy to learn how to design?

The answer is No!. I’m pretty much against private design academies; the mayority if not all are more worried to take your money than to offer a quality program or that you find a job. And i have experience in this matter. It’s better to have an official degree.

But if you really want to invest in a good way your money, hire someone with experience in the area you like to give you particular classes, it’ll be a lot cheaper, more personalized and intensive. You can also buy some good books, although today everything can be reached for free, thanks to the Internet.

My theory is that if you feel passion for what you do, you don’t need nothing else than to observe and a lot of practice. The mayority of quality artists that i know are self-taught… i guss that if you reach your goal, is because you have a lot of interest, that at the end is what matters.

3.- Is there a lot of work for designers? Is it well paid?

There’s plenty of work, the problem is that in Spain and South America (at least) the work of a graphic designer is underestimated, so work conditions are terrible.

There’s a lot of work in low quality design agencies, where appart from designing, you also are in charge of the phone, making photocopies and walking the dog.

If you really want to make money and enjoy your work, the best option is to be a freelance. Without giving any data i can tell you that if you’re good and you know how to move you can earn more than any engineer or medic… if you’re bad or you don’t know how to move, you’ll starve.

Another option is to go to England, Germany, United States…

4.- Should i specialize or know how to do everything?

This is another of the classic questions, Is it better to be good in a few areas or be bad in all of them?

Let’s return to what we said before, it depends… :

If you want to be Freelance it’d be idea to be good in one or two areas, and be at least decent in all you can. I consider myself good designing characters, but many clients also order me logos and also their websites.

If you want to work for a quality agency it’s better to specialize, if it’s a good agency they’ll probably have different departments with very specialized people in each area.

If you want to be the coffee boy then you have to know how to sketch, design logos, draw, design websites, animate, use 3D programs and program in 3 different languages… all this in a creative way and for 600€ per month. Obviously it’s impossible to know all that.

5.- Do i need to learn how to draw to design?

The answer is Yes, if you want to mark the difference you need to know how to draw. There’s no need to have the level of a comics cartoonist, but you need to know how to draw with grace.

Drawing is the base of everything.

6.- What if i don’t have any talent?

If you don’t have talent you’ll have to compensate it with work.

A lot of people when they see my designs say “You are very talented!!”, which gets on my nerves. So then i start to explain that it’s not a gift that fell from the sky, it’s mostly practice, so if i added all the hours i spent in my life doodling anybody would do it with a similar quality…. the difference is that while others listen to some music or go party, i invest that time drawing. Well, actually i’m just trying to justify my terrible ear for music

I prefer a thousand times a regular drawer that works than a lazy talented one. The regular wont be outstanding but it’ll be noticed, while the lazy talented one wont get anywhere… if you want to be outstanding you need to combine talent and work.

7.- But how do i get clients?

My friend… just work. Practice a lot, be seen in every site you can. Create a portfolio online. Visit regulary SOSNEWBIE… and keep practicing.

With time they’ll come… but don’t stop practicing.

Related Post:

1. The Briefing
2. SOSFactory is looking for illustrators
3. Why do you charge so cheap?

Vectorizing with Silhouette

Well, here i bring you another of my essentials, Silhouette is an Illustrator plugin to vectorize bitmaps.

1. It’s free (you only have to wait a countdown of 5 seconds)
2. Quick to download and install
3. It supports several languages
4. It has Manuals
5. It works with almost any Illustrator version
6. It works for PC and MAC
7. AND IT’S VERY EASY TO USE

You can download Silhouette here, after that decompress it with Winzip and put the file "SilhouettePlugIn.aip" in the plugins folder of Illustrator. Then, inside the program, you only have to make visible the Silhouette palette (Window > Show Shilouette tool settings).

It works like a charm to vectorize drawings, i use it to vectorize the lines drawed by hand in paper, after you ink the drawing and you clean it a bit with Photoshop, it’s ready to be vectorized. To vectorize images in color i’m afraid it’s more complicated.

I’ve prepared a VIDEOTUTORIAL by popular request, where i explain how to vectorize with Silhouette. Here you have a screenshot of the parameters i use:

Related Post:

1. Vectorial illustration with Illustrator