PS CS: Starting with a Blank Canvas

	Photoshop 7 & 8: Starting with a Blank Canvas
		Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6

Week 6 A Taste of Reality

I have begun a course at LVS on Line with Janee Aronoff of myjanee.com.

June22, 2004, Week6 Completed

This was again fun and I learned all the things below...particularly about making 2 D things with a 3D appearance by using gradients and shadows, using perspective and guide lines.

Please click on the thumbnails to view a larger image.

A 3 D ball created with Gradients and painted shadows and highlights...

Making a Ball

I used a custom gradient to make a 3 D ball. The most difficult thing about this was trying to get the shadow and highlighting to look real. I think this was probably the most difficult part of all these objects in the lesson. Shadow and highlights are as important as perspective and lighting. I liked it as it was and so did not do anything fancy or special to it.

Building Boxes

There was a choice here of trying 2 different ways to get perspective. I tried the first which we have almost agreed is what is called 1 point perspective. There is a very good site for perspective here at Elfwood.

I used a photo of my granddaughters, Lauren and Kelly, to decorate the box. Some Transformation using Distortion was used to get the photo to appear to be lined up with the different box sides. (photo taken June 21, strawberry picking at Schartner's Farms)

I am not sure about the shadow and know I need much more observation of reality and practice with the brush.

A problem with the lines was seen after drawing the box. Even with using the selection at 0 Feathering, there were distinct jagged edges to the diagonals. I tried to cover that over by drawing lines with the brush, shift.

Making Pipes

I did and redid the pipe section! I must have 6 or more empty pipes lying around my Hard Drive! Different colors, too! I think my problem was trying to get the highlights and shadows again. Also, using the radial for a background I wanted to try to give it a bit of reflection where the surface and the pipe meet. I finally had to give in and accept what I had with a promise to get back and work at this once again at a later time.

Wires and Hoses

I drew a path, stroked it and did the highlighting and shadow. Best of all, I got to use my beloved (by now!) Pen Tool again!

Questions

III. B. 5. Why do you think it makes the pipe look shinier to have a sharper demarcation between white and your color?

I think that the pipe looks shinier because the white is more concentrated as opposed to being spread over space (small as it may be in the cylinder) and thus diluted.

What questions do you have about this lesson? Did you find any errors?

I felt it may have been an error (or it could have been me!) in the Part 3 Pipes,"2. Beginning a little left of center, drag your gradient horizontally. Holding Shift as you drag will constrain your drag to a perfect horizontal." That seems to say to drag from left to right. Then, in d, where it says "d Choose your gradient tool, with the same gradient you used before. This time, drag it from the left side over toward the right side." Seems it should be in the opposite direction in order to get the inside shine to match the outside shine. (This is the open ended pipe.)