Clearsite Multimedia

natural resources #3

admin — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:47:26 +0000

Hey, did you know there’s a whirl pool in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that is almost 1500 miles wide? Not a big deal except it’s filled with tons of plastic that washes out into the ocean. It’s a sludge of rotating plastic particles entering our sea life and finding it’s way into the food chain. So don’t forget to throw all those plastic utensils, bottle caps, water bottles, blister packages and stir straws into the recycle bin. Yah, I know they don’t have a rounded triangle with a number on it but they should! Oh, and think of all that plastic you throw into the regular trash from the bathroom. Plastic that holds cosmetics, shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, underarm juice, on and on and on.

chalk

admin — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 05:18:09 +0000

CREATE A CHALK ILLUSTRATION IN PHOTOSHOP

It’s fast. It’s fun. It’s bright and colorful. If you want some editorial art that doesn’t look like your run-of-the-mill stock art, or need something to accent the corner of a print piece, here it is. Chalk à la Photoshop!

This tutorial will show how to use channels to create a “fixed” texture not unlike working chalk on a real canvas.

Getting Started—While not critical for the completion of this tutorial, when applying this technique in the real world it is important to know the final size of the art before you begin illustrating. It is best to work at 100%. Although resizing as much as 20% in either direction should be fine, be careful with anything more, as it may degrade the quality. Too much enlarging tends to make the texture look rasterized and hard; while excessive downsizing will cause the texture to close up and you’ll lose the details that define the chalky porous look.

Document Setup—Start a new canvas at 10 x 8 inches; 300pixels/inch; CMYK Color Mode; with a White Background.

Drawing The Masks—By using paths for mask instead of the channels, you keep your file smaller and easier to manage. So, we’ll do just that. On the Paths Pallette select New Path and name it Flowers. Using the Pen Tool (P) draw the shape of a flower—keep it simple.

Use Command + T to adjust and position the path.

Option + Drag to copy pieces of your flowers. Adjust and arrange the flower path as you like. Add a simple path for the stems.

Now, create the fish. For convenience and to prevent any confusion against the Flower path, create a new path layer called Fish.

Creating The Canvas—Fill background layer with 50% Cyan.

Add a new Alpha Channel by selecting New Channel from the menu on the Channels Pallette. Name this new Alpha Channel Texture.

With the Texture Alpha Channel highlighted go to FILTERS > TEXTURE > TEXTURIZER. Choose Canvas as the Texture. Set to maximum both the Scaling (200%) and Relief (50). You want the strongest contrast and most detail. It doesn’t matter where the light comes from as long as it’s not directly from the top or the side. This will give you the nice crisscrossing pattern that happens when the light hits the canvas at an angle. Hit OK.

Your Texture Alpha Channel should now have a very high−contrast canvas pattern like the one above. Enlarge the pattern even more by dragging the Marquee to about 4 x 3 inches and then sizing to fill the entire canvas.

Note: Use Command + T and hold down Shift to size proportionally.

Duplicate this Alpha Channel; call it Texture Copy. Rotate Texture Copy 180° by going to EDIT > TRANSFORM > ROTATE 180º.

Finally, Duplicate the Texture Alpha Channel one last time and call it Texture Fish. Go to EDIT > TRANSFORM > SKEW and Skew the entire pattern 10°. (There will be some extra space at the corners—just quickly clone, or marquee and copy the skewed pattern over it. This does not require perfection.)

Adding Color—The next few steps will require a leap of faith. You will either find yourself giddy or disappointed with the outcome. The History palette is your friend, so relax and have fun. Experiment with the colors. I arrived at my color choices after experimenting with about 30 different combinations. My only strong suggestion would be to use extreme contrasts and variations. Also, periodically reduce your view to make sure the colors are not muddy. Above all, keep it simple.

1. Choose 20 magenta/100 yellow for your Background color. You should already have 50% cyan on your canvas.
2. Select the Alpha Channel Texture through SELECT > LOAD SELECTION. You should see a “noisy” mess over the cyan.

3. Command + T to transform the entire textured selection. Those are the “marching ants” of your selection.

4. Rotate 180°, either by doing manually and holding shift or input into tool bar.

5. Select 400px Airbrush; 25 Hardness; 30 Opacity; Switch the Orange to the Foreground color and airbrush in more intense areas.

Repeat this general process with more layers of different colors, but use the Alpha Channel Texture Copy, rotate at random angles (SELECT > TRANSFORM SELECTION) and Fill. This will decrease chances of moiré patterns occurring.

Keep all of the different colors on separate layers so that you can still erase some of the edges and areas to make your background look imperfect.

Here’s a picture of the purple addition…

Magenta addition and then green.

Fish And Flowers—Using the paths you’ve already drawn, make selections.

Go to SELECT > LOAD SELECTION and choose Texture.

Under Operation, choose Intersect with Selection. Click OK. (Use Command + H to get rid of the “marching ants” so that you can see clearly.)

Airbrush your flowers in white and yellow. (See toggle Pointer below)

Using the same process as with the flowers, create the base color of the fish.

Using the Texture Fish Alpha Channel add the details to the fish.

Adding Detail—Create a new Alpha Channel named Stems by selecting only the paths that comprise the stems; choose a Brush (B) of 35px, 100 Hardness; stroke with white.

SELECT > LOAD SELECTION > Stems and then brush in some white and bright green. Keep it random.

Pointer: By creating the two colors you want to use in the foreground and the background, you can toggle while you draw by using (X) on the keyboard. Drawing tools will be using the foreground color.

One of my favorite things to do is use the Lasso (L) tool and just freehand draw shapes to brush in color. (It helps if you have a drawing tablet, stylus and confidence.) I drew some leaves and waves. You can either SELECT > SAVE SELECTION or create another Alpha Channel to save your hand−drawn shapes. You can now add and subtract these shapes from your drawing to create spontaneity.

Pointer: View the hand-drawn Channel and CMYK layers at the same time. This way you can add or subtract to the Channel with accuracy.

Adding An Adjustment Layer—Great for non-commitment and a chance to go back to change the colors and contrast.

1) Load the Selection you’ve just created with the leaves; 2) Choose Hue/Saturation in the pull down menu; 3) Click the box for Colorize and then slide the Hue, Saturation and Lightness until you get the color you want. I chose a similar magenta/purple as the background but with more saturation and darkness. Any color will work as long as it contrasts with the background and doesn’t take over the subjects.

By using an Adjustment Layer, you can change your mind later.

Note: I’ve adjusted the Background layer so that some texture and colors show through transparently—keeping with the Chalk characteristics.

Completing The Drawing—Don’t create detail for detail’s sake, the goal should always to make the piece as strong as possible and then leave it alone. I added some blue circles or “bubbles” to balance out all that blue in the corner where the fish is, some soft white swirls to add movement. By using the Burn and Dodge (O) on some layers, you can intensify colors and add colors. Remember, that by utilizing Alpha Channels, Adjustment Layers and Layers, you can experiment to your hearts content—something you could never do without muckying up your real Chalk drawing. Have fun!

natural resources #2

admin — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:13:15 +0000

Going green isn’t so special these days and most people don’t even know what they’re doing. If you’re a celeb, you’ve probably got a “natural” t-shirt line going. Your t-shirt advertised on a 50 page catalog will be delivered in 7 to 10 days via a fuel guzzling jet, ship, train and truck, wrapped in tissue and plastic, inside a cardboard box, safety-pinned with a cool tag about your “green company”, accompanied by a receipt printed on paper with carbon. Enjoy! It was probably even manufactured by a 7 year old child in a some developing nation. Consumerism, by nature, is wasteful.

Quiet green practices go a lot further. Bring your favorite coffee cup to the coffee shop where you would have trashed 5 days x 52 weeks of paper cups, sleeves and lids. Add energy powder from small packs to your water in a thermos to save 3 x 52 weeks of energy drink bottles. Eat in or dine there! If you take it to go you’ll be using 3 x 52 weeks of 3 styrofoam containers, 2 plastic bags and plastic ware. Now you get the picture as to why Americans only recycle 1% of all the plastic they use… and what about all that paper?

lawyer cleaner human resource banking student

admin — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:42:37 +0000

Wow! In any given month, owning your own business means coming in early on a Monday to vacuum the leased space so you don’t make too much noise for your fellow leasers downstairs, filling the fridge with 4 o’clock a.m and p.m munchies, negotiating an employee’s vacation time, checking to see where that freelancer is at 9:30 a.m., fighting bogus charges from your last landlord, estimating on a job you know you won’t get, educating a client on the differences between vector and bitmap and sitting on Lynda.com to brush up on the software you will never get good at because you own your own business and crap has to get done.

I can’t emphasize enough that running a multimedia business has about as much to do with creativity as a new president has to do with fixing the economy… NONE!

Get good at or pay the bucks to have an office manager. Pay that astronomical legal fee to have your leasing contracts and any other “contracts” read. Use professionals. That means an Accountant for accounting, an Electrician for dimmers and switches, and a real IT person for your network and server. Keep your employees happy with good food, gallons of coffee, fast computers and up-to-date software. Be nice and make friends with your fellow neighbors—they are as much a part of your office as the people that work for you. Learn advance communication and directing. Take up psychology as a hobby. Be studious in your own craft. Appreciate that “down time” means clean, organize, fix, learn, study, take long lunches, get sleep, see your family and relax. Know that next week you might be working those 80 hours again.

Remember to look over your shoulder while you’re running to catch that pass but to spot what’s in front of you so you don’t run into the goal post. Keep your nose in everything even if you don’t understand. Constantly question, to double check and to learn from, the professionals you use—that means your employees, too. If you’re still having fun, it’s all worth it. Be proud of what you’ve accomplished and know that success is freedom to take your own path.

natural resources #1

MiyukiSena — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:04:54 +0000

Check the quality of your tap water at home. You can get water testing kits from the hardware store. If the drinking water in your area does not meet with your standards (that means odor, too, because if it doesn’t smell good either you won’t drink it) use water filters. Water filters can be mounted right onto the faucet, under the sink, or to a pitcher (such as Brita®). Initially the cost can run from $20 to over a $150, plus your time for installation but you’ll make up for the expense and the cost to our environment in no time.