Photoshop Compositing Secrets - Matt Kloskowski [63]
©ISTOCKPHOTO/DENIS GAGARIN
STEP THREE:
Select the Ellipse tool from the Toolbox (it’s nested with the Shape tools, but you can also press Shift-U until you get to it). Then, click on the Shape Layers icon up in the Options Bar (the first icon on the left). Press D to set your Foreground color to black and draw an ellipse at the top of the image, like you see here.
STEP FOUR:
Go back into Free Transform. Press-and-hold Option-Shift (PC: Alt-Shift) to constrain the proportions and expand from the center, click on one of the corner handles, and drag outward. You can even go past the boundaries of the document and Photoshop will still transform the shape larger, even though you can’t see the handle anymore. Click-and-drag inside the Free Transform boundaries to move most of it out of the document, so you only see the lower part of the ellipse. When you’re done, press Return to lock in the change.
STEP FIVE:
Press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) twice to create two more copies of the ellipse layer. Double-click on the layer thumbnail on the bottom copy and, in the Color Picker, set the color to R: 201, G: 181, B: 126, and click OK. Even though you changed the color, you won’t see it yet, since it’s behind another Shape layer. Still working on the bottom copy, go into Free Transform again, put your cursor over the H (height) setting in the Options Bar, and use the scrubby hand icon (as seen here) to drag to the right to increase it, so just part of the shape shows through.
STEP SIX:
Then move over to the W (width) setting and decrease it a little, so the amount of the tan shape that shows through changes as it gets toward the center. Press Return when you’re done. This created a tan outline, but the outline also changes in shape and has a much cooler look to it, since it’s not perfectly symmetrical with the top shape.
STEP SEVEN:
Do the same thing with the middle layer, but this time change the color to white instead. Again, this just adds a little more depth to the overall design. I went back and re-adjusted the bottom Shape layer a little after I adjusted the middle layer, too. Those outlines really stand out when you see the final image.
STEP EIGHT:
Click on the top copy of the ellipse to target the layer. Let’s start getting the school colors on the image. Click on the Add a Layer Style icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Gradient Overlay. Click on the Gradient thumbnail in the dialog to open the Gradient Editor. To change the color of the gradient, just double-click on the little color stops (the tiny squares) under the gradient ramp in the middle of the dialog. When the Color Picker appears, choose a semi-dark green for the left color stop, and an even darker green for the right color stop. Click OK to close the Gradient Editor.
STEP NINE:
Back in the Layer Style dialog, set the Style to Radial, the Angle to 8°, and click OK. Now your top layer has a green gradient on it. Gradients really help add that extra dimension to your designs, which is why we rarely use just a flat color in images like this. It doesn’t have to be (and it probably shouldn’t be) a severe color difference in the gradient, but something subtle (like the two greens we used here) really helps add to the overall look of the image.
STEP 10:
Okay, the top is done. Click on the top shape layer in the Layers panel and Shift-click on the bottom one to select all three. Then go to Layer>Group Layers (or press Command-G [PC: Ctrl-G]) to put these into a group. Groups (which look like folders in the Layers panel) help us keep the various layers organized when the Layers panel starts to grow. Double-click on the group name and rename it something more descriptive, like I did here.
STEP 11:
Right-click on the group and choose Duplicate Group to