The Adobe Creative Studio

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28332686623893431672011-11-27T15:42:58.258-08:00The Adobe Creative StudioA collection of hints and tips for Adobe’s brilliant Creative Suite.Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.comBlogger401100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-38697102102055611372008-01-10T08:34:00.000-08:002008-01-10T09:07:45.661-08:00Photoshop: Using Defringe

Here’s a quick tip which is very useful for those occasions when you want to make a fairly complicated selection in Photoshop.This came about when an estate agent client of mine found it necessary to replace all of his skies with a clear blue sky but was having trouble selecting branches and foliage. Here’s the original image:1. First go to Select> Color Range… and click inside the sky to select

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-64615535208126761852007-08-26T14:18:00.001-07:002007-08-31T06:08:05.497-07:00InDesign: Nested Style Sheets

Hello everyone on this lovely Summer’s day. This evening, in a wine-soaked stupor, I’m going to be taking a look at one of InDesign’s most powerful and juiciest features. Nested styles appeared back in InDesign CS2 and I, for one, was excited by the possibilities of being able to nominate character styles to appear in any order or position in a paragraph. But then that's the kind of guy I am...

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-49961073836457721572007-08-18T14:20:00.000-07:002007-08-18T15:03:07.289-07:00Illustrator: Dark Side Of The Moon

Hello out there.Once again I’m going to have to offer my most sincere apologies for the somewhat sporadic nature of these little tutorials of ine. It’s probably not much of an excuse but I really have been very, very busy lately.What with family business and far too much work, I’ve been finding it very hard to spare the time to maintain this blog. But I promise, I really do promise, that I’m

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-48961029747480704102007-08-08T12:41:00.000-07:002007-08-08T13:03:06.717-07:00Photoshop: The sky's the limit

Hi everyone, For today's exercise I'm going to be using a vector mask in combination with a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to radically alter the colour of a sky.We're all familiar with masks in Photoshop, but some of you may never have used a vector mask. They are ideal for quickly masking out sharply defined edges, such as those of a building. Here's how they work…1. I took this picture in New

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-12389073052645137292007-08-02T10:21:00.000-07:002007-08-02T10:56:06.915-07:00Illustrator: A few custom shape requests

Hit thereI'm responding to a couple of requests today, so the following exercises are probably going to be a little too simple for a lot of people. Sorry.The first request was from a pupil in London. She wanted to produce an object with only one rounded corner. Should be simple, shouldn't it? But try as she might, she couldn't do it. Illustrator, you see, ain't Freehand, I'm afraid. And even

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-15242308755404275942007-07-26T12:39:00.000-07:002007-07-26T13:43:47.963-07:00Illustrator: Create a dart board

Hello there, for today's long overdue exercise I'm going to be creating a dartboard. Why? Why not?1. Create a new document and select the Polar Grid tool (one of my favourite tools, actually). Now single-click on the artboard and make the width and height of the grid 355pt. You need to specify 6 Concentric Dividers (that's how many there are in a dartboard) and 20 Radial Dividers (why? Because a

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com62tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-66215780555439651872007-07-21T10:07:00.000-07:002007-07-21T10:26:31.343-07:00Creative Suite: Selecting Type

You'll have to excuse me if the following tips are a little too simplistic for you, or you already know them. Not only do they apply to the entire Creative Suite, they also apply to any program out there.The reason I'm publishing these tips is that I know for a fact that if you don't already know them they will make your life a whole lot easier. Proof of this comes from the reaction I usually get

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com94tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-75797252070947661702007-07-18T10:33:00.000-07:002007-07-18T11:46:55.472-07:00Illustrator: Starry, Starry Night

Hi there.Today’s exercise will show you how to create a star-field effect in under five minutes. There are, of course, many ways of doing this, the Symbol Sprayer tools being an obvious choice. In this instance, however, I'm going to use a Scatter Brush, which is sometimes very useful for things such as crowds scenes and – naturally – Star Fields.As always, your comments are very

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-49803113308959033322007-07-15T09:31:00.000-07:002007-07-15T09:47:53.855-07:00Photoshop: Straighten Gallery Shots

Hiya,First of all another of my customary apologies but it's been a pretty hectic and emotionally charged week for me. Far too hectic and emotionally charged to think about Adobe tutorials. If you're interested, as well as being overrun with work, I also found myself on the telephone speaking to my mother and father for the first time since 1998. It's a long story and I won't bore you with any

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-90822239850248295062007-07-08T09:06:00.000-07:002007-07-08T13:20:51.459-07:00Illustrator: Metallic Type

Hi there.Back to my favourite prog today. I'm going to be doing this while I watch Federer-Nadal in the Wimbledon final. If I appear a little distracted then, please forgive me (as I write Federer is two sets to one up but has fallen to pieces a little in the fourth set).Illustrator. What a fantastic program. I was brought up using Freehand and for many years I thought it was the bee's knees.

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-40910419321635246032007-07-06T05:16:00.000-07:002007-07-06T05:32:31.709-07:00Photoshop: Recolouring Images

Don't get the idea that I'm obsessed with flowers but here's another flower exercise for your pleasure. Ever need to quickly recolour an image or part of an image?I can remember years ago doing really stupid things like trying to make a selection in an image before attempting to adjust colours. Naturally, you don't have to do this. Here watcha do:1. Open your image and head over to Image>

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-33531400019468363322007-07-03T13:07:00.000-07:002007-07-03T14:13:33.346-07:00Photoshop: Using Photomerge

Hi thereApologies again for the delay in posting. Two reasons for this, to be honest: one is that I'm really, really busy at the moment. The other is that I've been getting so little feedback for this blog (despite thousands of page loads) that I was beginning to get a little despondent.This has changed recently, however, and I'd like to thank all the people that have sent messages of

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-35725489713136448192007-06-30T01:15:00.000-07:002007-06-30T02:16:42.735-07:00Illustrator: Create a 3D bottle

Hi there. The following exercise is a bit of an old chestnut. So I apologise about that. Almost everybody who has ever used a 3D package has begun by drawing the obligatory bottle or glass. I think that maybe I'll be able to show you why.Digressing slightly: if anyone from the USA is tuning into this, I'd like to personally thank the whole of America for beta-testing the iPhone. It's very

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-46693511377894085612007-06-27T14:56:00.000-07:002007-06-27T15:34:25.388-07:00Illustrator: Five-Minute Flowers

I'm really knackered as I write this. So I’m afraid that this exercise will be short and sweet. I'm doing this at 11.30 a.m. because I live in hope that one day somebody might actually post a comment to let me know that I'm not alone in this world. For the record this exercise takes advantage of Illustrator's Symbol tools to very quickly create a bunch of flowers. 1. Begin with a simple square.

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-60939244752783445022007-06-25T12:36:00.000-07:002007-06-25T13:09:34.660-07:00InDesign: Turn A Clipping Path Into A Picture Frame

Here's a lesser-known feature of InDesign: the ability to take a clipping path and turn it into a picture frame.1. A picture of my father-in-law. For those of you who tuned into my last blog, he's the one at who's house I stayed last rainy weekend. Nice place, actually. And proof that moving out of London can be a worthwhile thing to do. He's basically swapped a one-bedroom flat in Hampstead for

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-56333320626138430752007-06-24T05:09:00.000-07:002007-06-24T05:38:06.430-07:00Photoshop: Look Younger Without Surgery

First of all, apologies for not updating this blog for two or three days. I've taken a weekend break with the family and the parents-in-law in rainy old Sussex. Another apology for the shortness of this forthcoming tutorial. I have about twenty minutes before we all sit down to lunch.This little exercise will be familiar to long-term users of Photoshop but it may perhaps prove to be something of

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-6104022816140736122007-06-19T13:25:00.000-07:002007-06-19T14:22:23.796-07:00Illustrator: Recreate Queen's Jazz Album Cover

Back to Illustrator tonight and for this exercise I'm going to recreate the cover for Queen's 1978 album Jazz. In actual fact, this particular cover is not much of a favourite of mine. However, it's ideal for taking advantage of Illustrator's extreme ease of use when it comes to creating geometric patterns. It also gives me the opportunity to put Illustrator's excellent blend function through its

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-48742471604864918562007-06-18T10:55:00.000-07:002007-06-18T12:00:35.352-07:00InDesign: Create A Table Of Contents

It's about time I put InDesign through its paces. I've been neglecting Adobe's fantastic DTP package in favour of Illustrator.For this exercise I'm going to show you how to create a table of contents in InDesign. In my experience this is a very useful thing to do. Not only do you automate the creation of a table of contents, but by creating PDF bookmarks you also make life a lot easier for

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com35tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-11829149661361887122007-06-16T02:04:00.000-07:002007-06-16T02:34:03.510-07:00Illustrator: Olympic Rings

With all the furore over the logo for the 2012 Olympics I thought it might be nice to run a quick tutorial on how to create the famous original Olympics logo with its interlocking rings. This interlocking effect can sometimes be a bit of a challenge but with a little lateral thinking you will see how easy it is.1. Begin with a simple circle. In this case it's best to work with rounded off

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-80350007494169779172007-06-14T13:10:00.000-07:002007-06-14T13:54:55.907-07:00Photoshop: Rescue Your Holiday Snaps

Even though I'm a huge fan of Adobe Illustrator that doesn't mean that I'm not equally fond of its big pixel-based brother Photoshop. Photoshop, as everyone knows, is a huge package. When it comes to imagery there really is nothing that you cannot do with what still remains Adobe's flagship program. But where, for my money, it really excels is when it comes to editing images.In this example I'm

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-15697796958218252492007-06-12T12:02:00.000-07:002007-06-12T12:41:40.813-07:00Illustrator: Diamonds Are Forever

You may have noticed that Illustrator happens to be my favourite program. Sure, Photoshop has the power and the ability to produce quick-fix effects using Filters, etc. But Illustrator, to my mind, is the purists' program. Surprisingly, in my opinion, it's not a pre-requisite that you should be able to draw before using Illustrator. Nor, for that matter, should you be an expert in Bezier curves.

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-69089960642657043372007-06-11T13:49:00.000-07:002007-06-11T14:15:00.890-07:00Photoshop: Vanishing Point Part 1

Vanishing Point was one of the most interesting additions to Photoshop CS2 and with CS3 it has become even more powerful. It is an incredibly powerful feature that is also very easy to use. In this exercise we are going to map a decal on to the side of a building. It should take you no more than two minutes to do.1. Choose an image to map your logo or words on to. Make sure that you rasterize the

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-59556880168980328842007-06-10T14:02:00.000-07:002007-06-12T11:38:17.073-07:00Illustrator: Flag Day

Another Illustrator tutorial for you. This one makes use of Illustrator's envelopes as well as blending modes. I've chosen a Japanese flag for this exercise. This is simply because I'm getting so many Japanese visitors to this blog. It'll work with any flag obviously.1. Begin by drawing a Japanese flag: a red circle inside a rectangle. If you're an anorak like I am you can use the align palette

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-28261813402073091592007-06-09T12:17:00.000-07:002007-06-09T12:39:00.128-07:00InDesign: Deselecting the selection tool

Most people are aware that when using InDesign all you have to do is hit the 'v' key when you are in (almost) any other tool and you will find yourself back in the Selection tool.This is great, and something that should become instinctive if you have been using InDesign for any amount of time. A major problem occurs, however, if you happen to be inside a text box when you hit the 'v' key. If you

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-90014385653696467112007-06-08T09:37:00.000-07:002007-06-08T09:58:40.852-07:00InDesign: Creating Island Spreads

One of the questions that constantly arises, particularly from migrating QuarkXpress users, is how does one create an island spread in InDesign?An island spread is three or more pages joined together, rather like the fold-outs that you sometimes see in magazines. In Quark this is very easy to do: you simply drag a page into position on the page layout palette and an additional page is created.If

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-20563957213604658312007-06-06T14:36:00.000-07:002007-06-06T15:39:04.463-07:00Illustrator: Create a 3D Dice

Illustrator CS2 included the welcome addition of a 3D effects module, older timers like me will remember this from the days of Adobe Dimensions. It's a relatively simple 3D app but still fun to use. Here we're going to use Extrude And Bevel to create a simple 3D dice.1. To begin go to the View menu and turn on Grid and Snap To Grid. Now draw yourself a simple square, adding a fill and removing

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-34349260638472172922007-06-05T10:53:00.000-07:002007-06-05T11:16:02.518-07:00Photoshop: Get Stoned!

We had a very nice email from a gentleman in Morocco of all places asking how to create a stone effect for logos in Photoshop. Here goes nothing...1. Create yourself a new Photoshop document. 72dpi for web or 300dpi for print. Select Filter>Render>clouds.2. Select the Channels Palette and hit the New button to create a new channel. Select this channel and apply Filter>Render>Difference Clouds.

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-24176228007937246662007-06-04T14:19:00.001-07:002007-06-04T14:36:50.410-07:00Illustrator: Flower Power!

A quick tutorial for a change, featuring my favourite program the sublime Adobe Illustrator.1. Create a simple elipse and then use the pen tool to sharpen one of the curves (hold down the alt key to temporarily bring up the convert anchor point tool).2. Add a fill and stroke of your choice and then select the Rotate Tool (r) and alt-click at the base of the ellipse to redefine the rotation origin

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-47384546027795779942007-06-03T09:51:00.000-07:002007-06-03T13:47:30.663-07:00Illustrator: Perfect Rounded Corners

This is just me, and some people might accuse me of going the long way around the block. But...One of the annoying things about Illustrator is the relatively minimal control that you have over rounded corner rectangles. It seems to me that you have two options if you wish to adjust the corner radius:1/ Use the left and right arrows to alter the corner radius as you're drawing. All very well but

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-46641296008223505692007-06-01T11:05:00.000-07:002007-06-03T10:22:52.339-07:00CS: Up and down magic

I'm constantly surprised by how few people are aware of the following feature. It runs throughout the entire Creative Suite, be it Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.. If you don't already know it, this tip will radically change the way that you work.Simply ensure that your cursor is in any field in any dialogue box or palette (panel in CS3) and use the up and down arrows to intuitively change the value

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-79378979193745944902007-05-27T14:21:00.000-07:002007-06-03T10:22:48.705-07:00Illustrator: Spazz Mode

I'm new to this blogging business and as yet nobody has even looked at this wonderful blog. Today I submitted this page to a number of blogging search engines, so hopefully there'll be some traffic soon. I live in hope...Anyhow, here's a fun little thing you can do in Illustrator. When you're using any of the primitive drawing tools (i.e. rectangle, ellipse, polygon, line tool, etc.) simply hold

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-41144203087710153192007-05-13T13:29:00.000-07:002007-06-03T10:22:42.768-07:00InDesign CS3 Easter Egg

Here's a nice Easter Egg available in the newest version of InDesign. Choose 'About InDesign' and then type the word 'Butterfly'. Do this carefully and you will get a reward!

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-44125188300573283452007-04-24T11:19:00.000-07:002007-06-03T10:22:37.714-07:00InDesign: Switch between text and object fill

A very quick tip, this one:If you're applying colours to a text box via the swatches palette hit 'j' to toggle between text colour and object colour.

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-31665971246551039582007-04-21T17:33:00.000-07:002007-06-03T10:22:31.698-07:00Resetting Preferences

From time to time things stop working in InDesign. Point in case: I was training a group of four people earlier this week and for no apparent reason some of the InDesign tools refused to work properly for one person only.At times like this the very first thing that I do is close the document and then re-open it. If this doesn't do anything I would then quit the program and relaunch it. If this

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-5183262864855922692007-04-17T15:06:00.000-07:002007-06-03T10:22:26.770-07:00Controlling fill and stoke

A few simple shortcuts to make working with fills and stokes a little easier. (In Photoshop's case, make that foreground and background).X – This will toggle between fill and stoke at the foot of the tool pallette.Shift-X This will transpose fill and stroke.D - This will set an object back to its default white fill and black stroke., – This will fill and object with the last used fill.. – This

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-34153485737459144982007-04-17T14:57:00.000-07:002007-06-03T10:22:22.748-07:00InDesign: Unlocking Master Page Elements

If you're a Quark user moving over to InDesign you may be a little perturbed by the fact that InDesign has the habit of locking all master page elements. The new user could spend a lot of time trying to solve this quandary, and may end up looking in the pallette menu of the pages to find the command 'Override all master page items'. This, however, has the effect of unlocking all master page items

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-35802521577023705612007-04-16T14:51:00.000-07:002007-06-03T10:22:19.369-07:00InDesign: Paragraph and Character Panes

Another simple but essential hint: The more you use InDesign the more you realise that you spend half of your life flipping between the paragraph and character panes of the control panel. Here's the keyboard shortcut: if you don't know it already it will save your life. Well, maybe not your life but you may just keep your hair a little longer.Apple-alt-7 or Control-alt-7.

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-87767130140096635692007-04-16T14:12:00.000-07:002007-06-03T10:22:15.769-07:00Post Your Questions Here

If you're using the Adobe Creative Studio and need help then post a question in this thread. If you do this we'll create a new post to address your question.

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-7842111342782315222007-04-16T13:30:00.000-07:002007-06-03T10:22:11.979-07:00Illustrator: Easter Egg

A bit of an old one this, but still fun.Go to the bottom of the Illustrator screen and click on the arrow next to 'Selection' holding down the alt or option key. Check out the 'Show' sub-menu for a few hidden extras…

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2833268662389343167.post-12731707185259540692007-04-16T12:18:00.000-07:002007-06-03T10:22:07.159-07:00InDesign: Set Up A Baseline Grid

How many times have you flicked throught a newspaper or magazine and noticed that text is not lining up across columns? While this is not a deal breaker it's ugly and lazy work, especially when it's so easy to set up a baseline grid and correct this problem. Setting up a baseline grid is something that I normally do at the very start of a publishing project. A lot of designers try this and get

Europa Traininghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18407263513888325775noreply@blogger.com3