dekeSpeak
The Newsletter of Things Deke: April 19, 2011
Hello friends:
As I’m sure you know, Photoshop is a vast and boundless application. And our intrepid Deke has been doing a terrific job of revealing its innermost secrets for the last two decades. Now he’s venturing even further into the program’s least understood depths, this time taking on the the murky but incredibly powerful realm of 3D.
Here’s a sampling of what’s in store for you today:
- Deke’s groundbreaking Photoshop CS5 Extended One-on-One: 3D Fundamentals video course is now live on lynda.com.
- By way of a teaser, Deke shows you (for free) how to make a 3D rendering of the planet Saturn.
- Today’s Deke’s Techniques shows you how to turn a photo into an ink drawing.
- Find out what makes Smart Objects so brilliant in today’s in-depth tip, by me.
There’s more. And, as ever, Deke sends all his virtual love.
Best regards,
Lou B
Speaker of the Deke, dekeOnline
Enter the Z dimension with Photoshop CS5 Extended One-on-One: 3D Fundamentals
When Deke’s Photoshop CS5 Extended One-on-One: 3D Fundamentals went live March 29 on lynda.com, it immediately shot to #1. No surprise. Only slightly more than 5 hours long, this action-packed video course takes you places no Photoshop training has gone before.
Between you and me, the integration of 3D into Photoshop CS5 Extended is a game-changer for designers, artists, and even photographers. And as usual, Deke makes this difficult topic plain and practical, while offering scads of information found nowhere else. Spend a couple of days with this concise video course and you’ll have a leg up on everyone around you.
This course marks the first in a four-part series, which will include 3D Objects, 3D Scenes, and 3D Type Effects. People are always saying that stuff will blow your mind. But seriously, this series will blow your mind. Here’s an image Deke created a couple of days ago for his upcoming 3D Scenes course. It may look photographic, but it’s all Photoshop all the time.
Stay tuned for more. :-)
Deke Offers a Free 3D Preview
You know that 3D image of Saturn from above? It’s not a NASA photo. It’s an image created from scratch in Photoshop CS5 Extended. And yet it’s scientifically accurate, with probe-captured planet texture and ring opacity data. And you can make it, right now, this minute, for free. Just check out Deke’s 28-minute video “Photoshop CS5 Extended One-on-One 3D Preview: Making Saturn from Scratch,” ready and waiting for you at dekeOnline. Just click the link and start watching. (For the intrepid, sample files are also included.)
Deke’s Techniques Converts Photography into Line Art
Deke takes a portrait photograph and turns it into a digital ink drawing in this week’s Deke’s Techniques. The transformation involves a smart object and several smart filters, including the rarely-used Note Paper and frankly stupid Smart Blur. For members of the lynda.com Online Training Library, Deke includes a second video in which he shows how to render this same guy as a pencil sketch with lightened eyes and teeth.
Previous Deke’s Techniques showed how to remove red-eye like a pro, correct for transverse chromatic aberrations, and simulate subpixel rendering. What the heck is that last one? It’s a technique that lets you render small type in Photoshop so that it reads clearly and legibly, just as it does in your operating system or Web browser.
And next week? (Seriously, you want more already?) Deke will show you how to create a seamlessly repeating tile pattern.
Tip: Smart Objects are Brilliant
Photoshop’s Smart Objects are fantastically powerful, but abysmally named. They ought to be called Magic Wrappers. When you wrap an image inside a Smart Object, it becomes the pixel-equivalent of Superman. You can apply filters and other “destructive” edits to the image without harm, and then change your mind later. A Smart Object lets you adjust filters like Shadows/Highlights, Gaussian Blur, and even Puppet Warp as many times as you like without harming a photograph’s detail or starting from scratch. Imagine a layer that can leap tall buildings in a single bound, and you have a sense of what Smart Objects are all about.
Today’s tip comes from Chapter 29, The Power of Smart Objects, included with the video course Photoshop CS5 One-on-One: Mastery from lynda.com. Read more »
Featured Image from Fotolia
As part of its celebration of Earth Day (coming up this Friday—whoo, Earth!), Fotolia is promoting a series of “green” documents. This week’s image, ©Photosani, is file #1452862. It illustrates what a bright idea it is to think green. Or, at the very least, it shows a leaf inside a light bulb.
Log on to Fotolia to view and download today’s image.
Fotolia protects its artists and offers competitive commissions while keeping prices low, so that everyone can enjoy and afford high-quality artwork. And it does so in the Earth-friendly environment of the Internet (the vast cables for which run mostly underground).
“Hi, I’m Deke, and I approve this newsletter.”
Do you have tutorial on car from lynda banner?
Am Lynda subscriber. Saw banner advertising CS5 one-on-one mastery that featured awesome digital painting of purple car with crazy light fx. Do you cover that somewhere? I have banner if you need me to forward. Thanx!
Why oh why, your Dekeness,
Why oh why, your Dekeness, am I starting to get this very odd dialogue in CS5.
I am working on a file, yes . . . rich with effects and smart objects) and I want to SAVE my work on this already established document, and when I choose Command-S, I get this ridiculous dialogue stating: The disc copy of “Deke is my psd GOD” (or whatever the file is called) was changed since you last opened or saved it. Do you want to save anyway?
Huh . . . YEAH, I want to save it, that is why I selected Command-S.
Why does the program need to check with me if I REALLY want to save ? ¿ ?
That is a new development—it was never this bothersome before.
*:-.,_,.-:*’``’*:-.,_,.-:*’``’*:-.,_,.-:*’``’*:-.,_,.-:*
M i c h a e l B R U N S f e l d