Are you ready for another Deke’s Techniques? This week Deke McClelland takes a still photograph of a majestic falcon and creates the appearance of motion by superimposing multiple copies of the wings and adjusting their positions with the Puppet Warp tool in Adobe Photoshop. Get started by watching the free video below and using the companion text to help you along.
There are three object styles that rule them all—three styles that should be in every designer’s toolbox because you’ll find yourself calling on them again and again no matter how simple or complex the project.
In this week’s InDesign Secrets video, Anne-Marie Concepción shows you how to build these styles from scratch in Adobe InDesign and use them to format images, callout lines, and photo credits.
Welcome back to Deke’s Techniques. This week Deke McClelland takes the 2D character from last week’s tutorial (inspired by the art of video game designer Dan Paladin) and adds a radiant cartoon aura in Adobe Illustrator.
1. Delete the template layer and select the back layer. Option-click or Alt-click the Create New Layer icon to open the Layer Options dialog box. Name the new layer aura and click OK to add the layer to your document.
2. Unlock the body layer. Click in the upper corner of that layer’s row in the Layers panel to select all its paths.
Fans of Dan Paladin, the artist of popular video games such as Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers, are going to be really excited about this week’s installment of Deke’s Techniques. Deke McClelland uses a few predrawn elements and a template to create a Paladin-inspired 2D walrus warrior with Adobe Illustrator. By tracing Deke’s template, you’ll re-create his steps and learn vital drawing techniques to help you create your own characters. To get started on the helmet, watch the video and use the steps below to help you along.
InDesign users have long desired a way to get a grayscale PDF out of InDesign, one with no color at all. And in InDesign CS6, Adobe finally lets you do this, right out of the box.
In this week’s InDesign Secrets video, David Blatner shows you how this works—and how to achieve the same effect even if you have a CS5 or earlier version of the program.
A proper “bleed” ensures the ink extends to the very outside edges of a printed page, leaving no margin or whitespace around your artwork. And though there’s no way to set it up automatically, in this week’s Deke’s Techniques, Deke McClelland shows you how to precisely align your artwork to the bleed in Adobe Illustrator.
Take a warning sign to the next threat level with Adobe Photoshop. In this week’s Deke’s Techniques, Deke McClelland takes a photograph of a real-life sign from The Cliffs of Moher in Ireland—better known as The Cliffs of Insanity in the movie Princess Bride—and adds a menacing shark with the combined power of paths, channels, clipping masks, and some other tools in Photoshop.
Why are there no default gradient swatches in Adobe InDesign? The Swatches panel tricks us into thinking there are, but you really have to build them by hand. Here’s a tip for leaving your days of manual labor behind: steal your gradients from Illustrator. In this week’s InDesign Secrets video, Anne-Marie Concepción shows you how to commit “gradient larceny” in the Creative Suite.
