the life and times of she who shall remain nameless

illustrator’s blend tool: a comprehensive guide: http://vector.tutsplus.com/tutorials/tools-tips/illustrators-blend-tool-a-comprehensive-guide/

when i get home from vacation i’m SO making a cheat sheet for my desk for all the various hotkeys and shortcuts in illustrator and photoshop!

the blend tool lets you….well, blend stuff together. shapes, paths, colors…whathaveyou.

blend lines:

blend shapes:

smooth color using the blend tool:

you can choose specified steps, specified distance, or smooth color when working with the blend tool. specified steps allows you to choose how many of the object is repeated between your original shapes. the distance lets you choose how far away each object is from each other. you can select more than two colors:

and by selecting specific anchor points, you can make cool shapes:

you can blend different shapes:

you can blend along a path:

once you have your blended path, you can change the alignment, change the direction of the blend (spine), and even use blends to create highlights.

this tutorial was…difficult to work through for me. it shows images of what can be done, but doesn’t tell me HOW. it tells me where to find the menus, but not how they work exactly. i got some stuff to work completely by accident! i’m going to keep playing with blends, though, cause they are so fun.

basics of creating 3D objects: http://tutvid.com/tutorials/photoshop/tutorials/3dObjects.php

wow- i was completely unaware of 3D tools in photoshop. this tutorial starts out with him clicking 3D at the top menu bar and then cone…and there’s a 3D cone on his artboard. so easy! i feel like this tutorial concentrated less on HOW to make the 3D object and more on how to decorate it and light it using various 3D tools. i also feel like he did more and explained less than other tuts i’ve seen…i still have no real clue how he got the design to line up on the cone, for example. pretty cool to watch, though!

creating 3D spiraling light streaks or zips: http://tutvid.com/tutorials/photoshop/tutorials/3dLightZips.php

our narrator says that this will be successful with any object, and that it doesn’t have to be 3D, but then goes on to show us how to do this treatment using a 3D object…so not too sure how successful it will be with a 2D one. he basically draws a flat ellipse, adds two anchor points, and then duplicates it up the object. he uses a brush stroke to simulate a pen (set to simulate pressure) to make the zips look…zippy. changes the color, tilts them to a more sassy angle, and then that’s it. this tutorial makes it look nice and easy. there a few of those steps that are a little more involved than they sound, and i think it could be better explained in the tutorial, but overall i think i could follow along with this later if i needed/wanted to.

smoothing and softening skin for portrait retouching: http://tutvid.com/tutorials/photoshop/tutorials/smoothSkinAndSharpen.php

mainly focuses on softening skin and sharpening parts of the face. this mostly relies on making multiple layers and masks and overlays to make it happen. it’s tedius and requires a good eye. he uses the smart sharpen option (and then more masking) to get the eyes, nose, and teeth sharp without losing the smoothing over the skin. i think i’d rather find another way to make this type of change on a photo – this is confusing!

changing hair color brunette to blonde: http://tutvid.com/tutorials/photoshop/tutorials/brunetteToBlondeHairColor.php

one way to accomplish this, though our narrator doesn’t recommend it, is just to color on top of the hair and then mess with the blend mode until you get a desired result.

the other method described involves channels, color adjustment layers, levels adjustment layers, and hue/saturation adjustment layers. the trick is to layer these layers and build up the adjustments.

i got beyond lost in this tutorial. he kept going back and forth within the adjustment layers to change one or two things…it’s a super long process…and just confusing as can be. i honestly don’t know that i’ll ever want to use this tutorial in the future. looking at it, i don’t feel like it’s the most realistic/successful looking outcome, either.