Down and Dirty Tricks

(compliments of MacToday Magazine)

 Making the page look like real paper, canvas, wood, etc
1) Open a new document, your choice of size and
resolution
2) Choose your favorite paper texture from the
Art Materials> Paper palette (try Raw Silk)
3) Navigate to: Effects> Surface Control> Apply
Surface Texture> Using: Paper Texture
4) Be certain to have the Softness slider set to 0. Adjust
the Amount slider, light direction. Change light
color for fabulous effects (e.g. very light yellow
for Raw Silk paper))
5) Press OK Edit> Fade and adjust the slider
bar to lessen the effect and add more subtlety.
 Casting Lights Across an Image
1) Open any image (including a blank document)
2) Choose Effects> Surface Control> Apply Lighting
3) Experiment with the different lighting choices...remember
that more subtle the lighting effects are better.
OPTION: Adjust the Spread slider to
make a shaft of light. Click on the
Color button to change colors. Notice
that how colors mix when shafts of
light are overlapping. Additionally, click
on the light sphere to add lights and
hit the delete key to eliminate them.
 Carving words into the paper grain or canvas
1) Apply a surface texture using the first effect on this page.
2) Click on the hollow A on the Tools Palette to activate the
Text tool.
3) If you want to, change the Font selection and Point Size
on the Controls Palette
4) Click on the canvas where the word is to begin, then type
the word
5) Stretch the word by grabbing the corners using the Floater Adjuster Tool on the Tools Palette
6) Navigate to Shapes>Convert to Selection
7) Navigate to Select>Save Selection.
8) Navigate to Effects> Surface Control> Apply Surface Texture> Using: Mask
9) Slightly adjust the Softness slider (between 4 & 6) and increase the Shininess slider.
10) Click on the Invert Mask Box, press OK.
11) Get rid of the marching ants by using the keyboard combination Ctrl/Command D.
 Beveling Type
1) Choose the Text tool on the tools palette
2) Adjust the font size and determine the font
type from the Controls palette
3) Type the word you want onto an open document
4) Group the letters (Command-G)
5) Press the Collapse button on the Objects
palette, Floater List
6) Navigate to Effects> Surface Control>
Apply Surface Texture> Using: Mask
7) Adjusting the Softness to 6 pixels and
press ok.
 Turning a Photograph into Mosaic Tiles
1) Open a suitable (read: colorful) image.
2) Navigate to Edit> Clone to create a copy of the image
3) Choose the Oval Selection too from the Tools palette
4) Click and drag from the top
left corner to the bottom
right corner of the image to
create an oval selection
5) Navigate to Canvas> Make Mosaic (click on the color chip
to make the grout black)
6) Click and hold on the little arrow on the top right corner
of the Mosaic window
7) Drag the mouse to: Fill Selection and lift up on the
mouse button.
8) Again navigate to Canvas> Make Mosaic, click on
the top right menu arrow, and choose Render image
to mask
9) Now navigate to Effects> Surface Control> Apply
Surface Texture> Using: Mask
10) Adjust the softness slider to just above zero
(experiment with this adjstment)
OPTION: Use the Cloner Brush to paint back in some
photorealistic quality into the mosaic. Use
Edit>Fade as a final step.
 Making a picture into a chalk rendering
(with or without a pressure sensitive tablet)
1) Open a suitable (read> colorful) image.
2) Navigate to Edit> Clone to create a copy
of the image
3) Navigate to Select> Select All and press
the delete key.
4) On the Brushes palette, choose the Chalk
brush with Large Chalk variant
5) Activate the color wheel on the Art
Materials palette.
6) Click on little box next to Clone Color (this
will allow you to derive color choice from the
clone source)
7) Stroke back and forth across the empty cloned file to fill it with chalk color from the clone
source.
Note: If you do not have a pressure sensitive tablet, then adjust the Grain slider to 10% on
the Controls palette prior to Step 7.
OPTION: Use the Cloner Brush to paint back in some photorealistic quality. Also, use
Edit>Fade as a final step.
 Recreating the bottom of your r efrigerator
1) Navigate to open the Pattern menu on the Art
Materials palette
2) Choose Make Fractal Pattern
3) Make the size 256, Power @ 150%, Channel>
Height as Luminance, Press OK
4) Click on the Grad icon on the Art Materials
palette to choose a gradation (Earthen works best
here)
5) Navigate to Grad> Express in Image on the Art Materials
palette
6) Adjust the Bias slider as you see fit and press OK
7) Navigate to Effects> Surface Control> Apply Surface Texture>
Using: Image Luminance
8) Get out the abr asive cleanser under your kitchen sink and start scrubbing! (It is inter-
esting to note that this is a seamless pattern...like for a web page background?)
 Automatically converting a picture into a Van Goghesque P ainting
1) Open a suitable image.
2) Navigate to Edit> Clone to create a
copy of the image
3) Choose the Auto Van Gogh variant of
the Artists Brush on the Brushes
Palette
4) Navigate to Effects> Esoterica>
Auto Van Gogh
5) Navigate to Effects> Surface
Control> Apply Surface Texture> Using: Image Luminance
OPTION: Add a subtle photorealistic quality by navigating to Effects>Surface Control>Fill
with the Clone Source, and press OK. Then go to Edit>Fade to adjust the intensity of the
fill.
 Fractal designs; no really, random fractal designs
1) Open a new document, your choice of size and resolution
2) Navigate to Effects> Esoterica> Growth...
3) The Growth window appears with many sliders
to experiment with (play at will!)
4) Click and drag your mouse over the document
where you want the Fractal pattern.
OPTION: You may change the colors of the Fractal
design when the Growth window is open by choos-
ing a new color on the Art Materials palette.