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Tip #29 Photo Graphic Banner (Photoshop 7)
By: Tedric GarrisonCreating a simple banner in Photoshop does not have to be a long drawn out process to still look nice. When you use the shapes tool like we will show you here, the possibilities are endless.
Step 1 Open a new document with the size being 468x60 (standard banner size.)
Step 2 Go to the Layers Menu, scroll down to Layer Style, then over and down to Gradient Overlay. This will first open the Layer Style Dialog box similar to the one below. Click inside the gradient drop down box to choose your main color. Note:
you also want to make sure the little box that says "Reverse" is checked.
Step 3 Once you have a bar looking similar to the one above, you will want to add some texture by choosing a shape that will overlap well. The shape tool is one of the options directly beneath the Text tool. (Ninth item on the right side of the tool bar.) More commonly the rectangle or line tool will be showing first. Click the rectangle in the lower left corner to find your shapes tool. Once this is clicked you will notice
that the tools along the top are changed also. Click on what ever shape is showing to see all your choices.
Step 4 In this case I used Arrow 2. The default in this case was White, but you can change that by clicking into the color box along the top. Since I plan on doing overlaps
I need to do two things before the next step. A) make the image wide enough to overlap itself, and B) Go up to the Layers Dialog Box (far right) and set the "Opacity"
setting down to 50%.
Step 5 Play with the overlap effect. Since the original shape is set at 50% Opacity
when I duplicate the layer and drag it over slightly I get the illusion of a 3-D arrow.
If you wanted to put them tighter together, you could probably get 4 sets of arrows.
In any even stop when you get to the half way point. Open the Layers Dialog Box
and click the second square box (from the left side) for each layer. This places an
icon like a chain in each box, to let you know they are linked.
Step 6 Since all the individual arrows are now linked, when you go to create a
duplicate layer it will show up as only two layers. Make sure the second of these
layers is active, then go to Edit on the menu bar, down to transform path, then over
and down to Flip Horizontal. Take your pointer tool and place the two sections
facing each other similar to above.
Step 7 Using the Pen tool (ninth tool on the left of the tool box) make a figure similar
to the one above. On this new Layer make sure that the Opacity setting is back to
100%. Regardless of the color you chose the first time, choose a lighter color
(preferably a complimentary color) for this layer made by the pen.
Step 8 In the Layers Dialog box drag this new shape so that it is below the other
shapes you made originally.
Step 9 Type in what ever keyword you want and flatten the image. Don't forget to
save. Obviously, the colors you pick can make this dramatically different, but this
gives you a starting point. Play with it and have fun.
Photoshop Tip #29: Tedric Garrison tedric@betterphototips.com
