Entry 5 - Ideas, Tools And Techniques Used In My Design

I have chosen to create a horror themed DVD inlay. Since I was struggling for ideas, I researched different horror DVD examples to give me a form of inspiration. I came across a few tutorials which showed me various methods of making an effective horror theme. I applied some of these in my project.

Methods learnt / Tools Used

Rectangle tool – I used the rectangle tool as a frame or place holder for my images. I felt this method was useful as it enabled me to keep the images in a particular area of the inlay. I intended to have three images of the same size beside each other, the rectangle tool helped me to achieve this.

The good thing about placing images in vector shapes is that it gets encapsulated, so when repositioning the image (whilst in the shape), it moves within the shape, as the shape remains in the same place on the layer.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgVuSSduQKI

Gory Text – I found a technique which I felt would add to the feel of the theme and at the same time, display a great effect on my DVD inlay.

The options/tools used/methods learnt from this tutorial are as follows;

o   Filter, rendering, layers, fibres (variance, strength),

o   Levels (input, output),

o   Channels panel,

o   Clip mask,

o   Hue saturation options,

o   Blend mode (colour burn),

o   Text tool (font),

o   Move tool,

o   Base line,

o   Transform tool,

o   Composite snapshot,

o   Zoom,

o   Pen tool,

o   Paths (selection),

o   Layer masks.

Source: http://www.photoshoproadmap.com/video-tutorials/yt/2Fs0RcTXXXU/

original version of image:

edited version of image:

Ghostly Figure –I looked up a few more tutorials on horror themes and came across a technique that intrigued me. It was one which converts an ordinary person in an image (photograph); to one which appears as a see-through ghostly figure. I thought that this best suits my DVD as it is based on hauntings and the supernatural.

The options/tools used/methods learnt from this tutorial are as follows;

o   Selection tool,

o   Lasso tool,

o   Content aware fill,

o   Clone stamp tool,

o   Black and white option (red filter),

o   Brightness and contrast,

o   Convert to smart object,

o   Filter (diffuse glow),

o   Motion blur,

o   Eraser tool,

o   Blending options,

o   Opacity.

Source: http://www.photoshoproadmap.com/video-tutorials/yt/_Mxi2lR7go4/

original version of image:

edited version of image:

Spot Healing Brush -I noticed that one of my images had a watermark along the side. To remove it in a way that it becomes less obvious that it was apparent, I used the spot healing brush tool. This tool fills the selected area with surrounding pixels to blend the colours together.