dekeSpeak

The Newsletter of Things Deke: November 08, 2011

Hello, gang:

Did you know that you can get a one-week lynda.com membership for free? If you’re not already a member, just go to lynda.com/deke and sign up. You can watch all those Deke’s Techniques episodes that you’ve been missing! (The free membership part will be our little secret.)

In this issue, we’re also letting these cats out of the blog:

• Deke’s long-awaited video course Photoshop Masking and Compositing: Fundamentals just went live. I know, I’m paid to say nice things about Deke. But seriously, I watched it and it’s amazing!
• This week’s free Deke’s Techniques shows you how to create a synthetic rainbow. Complete with skyshark.
• Today’s in-depth article explains how to use a photo of a real magnifying glass to enlarge part of your design. As always, Deke sends his virtual love.

Best regards,

Lou B
Speaker of the Deke, dekeOnline

Photoshop Masking & Compositing: The Reinvention of a Classic

When Deke released his first video course on the little-known art of masking at industry leader lynda.com, it led the pack for weeks, a rarity for such a focused coursed (not to mention, one that was 22 hours long). In the years since, Deke’s masking movies have garnered millions of views (!) from a host of seriously disciplined members. If you’re one of the many who’ve been eager for an update, you’re in luck. Deke’s latest video course, Photoshop Masking and Compositing: Fundamentals, is now available for immediate viewing. And I’m happy to report, while it’s twice as good, it’s only half as long.

While the Fundamentals course hits all the high points—you’ll learn how to use all the tools and commands, as well as select hair, feathers, skin, eyes, and glass, not to mention make entirely synthetic rainbows, shadows, blood, and rays of sunlight—this will serve as a base course for a series of additional (and much shorter) satellite courses. In fact, just yesterday, Deke finished recording the first satellite course, Photoshop Masking & Compositing: Advanced Blending. Watch for it next month.

Deke’s Techniques: Make a Magical Rainbow All Your Own

Deke brings on the screen magic in this episode of Deke’s Techniques, creating not just a synthetic rainbow, but also a floating skyshark. It’s the stuff of legend.

Members of the lynda.com Online Training Library can enjoy a follow-up video that shows how to cast a shadow from a layer (specifically, the skyshark).  Last week, Deke showed how to shrink the world with Photoshop.

I’m telling you, you miss these videos at your peril. Wanna see more (for free, btw)? Go to dekePod at deke.com.

Today’s Free Article: Enlarge Part of a Design with a Real Magnifying Glass

In this article, we’ll add a stock photo of a magnifying glass to a type design, set it up so that the glass magnifies a portion of the text behind it, and add a hint of tint to the glass itself. We’ll also create a custom drop shadow—one that looks realistic-because the default drop shadow doesn’t quite do the job.

Today’s article comes from Deke’s Techniques 62, presented by lynda.com.

Read more »

Featured Image from Fotolia

This lovely “portrait” of grapes on the vine, © Andreas Mueller, is #26496881 from image vendor Fotolia. Autumn always reminds me of the grape harvest and great wines from around the world.

Log on to Fotolia to view and download this week’s image.

Fotolia protects its artists and offers competitive commissions while keeping prices low, so that everyone can afford and enjoy high-quality artwork.

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“I’m Deke, and I approve this newsletter.”