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Tutorial: Chinese Paper Effect
originally posted at awmp on 8/31/04
;) upon multiple requests... I present the
Chinese Paper Tutorial
from this
to this
quick notes: this effect doesn't work for all pics. the caps have to be of a high quality. and I used Photoshop 7.0
1. The Background:
I made this BG of a Stock Photo of a Chinese calendar. Feel free to use it :)
2. Make a Sketch:
Use a high quality cap of your liking. I used this.
- desaturate it (shift+ctrl+U)
- duplicate the layer
- blur the duplicated layer (a Gaussian Blur around 5 works best normally)
- invert the blurred layer (ctrl+I)
- set the inverted layer on Color Dodge mode
- merge down the whole thing (ctrl+E)
- adjust the levels a little bit (ctrl+L):
make the black lines a bit blacker, the white areas a bit whiter
- use a Smart blur to clean the pic up a little bit
(I used these settings: Radius 1.2, Treshold 58)
- crop the pic to icon size
- invert the pic (ctrl+I)
- select all and copy it (ctrl+A, ctrl+C)
that's what it should look like right now
3. Put it on the Paper
open your papery BG.
- make a new layer, fill it with a nice brown.
- switch to your Channels palette.
- make a new Alpha Channel and paste the pic you've copied before. (ctrl+V)
- load the selection of the Alpha 1 channel or simply click on the channel while pressing the ctrl button
- switch back to your layer palette
- make sure the brown layer is activated and add a new layer mask (the selection still has to be visible)
4. Clean it up, make it pretty
your pic should currently look like this
- duplicate the brown layer twice
- on the first brown layer blur the layer mask (I used a Gaussion Blur of 2)
and lower the opacity to 80%
- on the second layer sharpen the layer mask and lower the opacity to 60%
- on the third layer set the mode to multiply, and lower the opacity to 50%
- link the three brown layers and adjust size and placement
- erase on all thee layers the parts you don't want to show up. use a fairly big soft brush.
- as you only erase the brown parts and leave the layer masks intact you can paint the brown back if you erase too much :)
the icon should look like this now
5. Decoration
- Decorate it. use your imagination. Examples:
and because it's fun, I used this free font for it ;) so go, have fun with it!
;) upon multiple requests... I present the
Chinese Paper Tutorial
from this
to this
quick notes: this effect doesn't work for all pics. the caps have to be of a high quality. and I used Photoshop 7.0
1. The Background:
I made this BG of a Stock Photo of a Chinese calendar. Feel free to use it :)
2. Make a Sketch:
Use a high quality cap of your liking. I used this.
- desaturate it (shift+ctrl+U)
- duplicate the layer
- blur the duplicated layer (a Gaussian Blur around 5 works best normally)
- invert the blurred layer (ctrl+I)
- set the inverted layer on Color Dodge mode
- merge down the whole thing (ctrl+E)
- adjust the levels a little bit (ctrl+L):
make the black lines a bit blacker, the white areas a bit whiter
- use a Smart blur to clean the pic up a little bit
(I used these settings: Radius 1.2, Treshold 58)
- crop the pic to icon size
- invert the pic (ctrl+I)
- select all and copy it (ctrl+A, ctrl+C)
that's what it should look like right now
3. Put it on the Paper
open your papery BG.
- make a new layer, fill it with a nice brown.
- switch to your Channels palette.
- make a new Alpha Channel and paste the pic you've copied before. (ctrl+V)
- load the selection of the Alpha 1 channel or simply click on the channel while pressing the ctrl button
- switch back to your layer palette
- make sure the brown layer is activated and add a new layer mask (the selection still has to be visible)
4. Clean it up, make it pretty
your pic should currently look like this
- duplicate the brown layer twice
- on the first brown layer blur the layer mask (I used a Gaussion Blur of 2)
and lower the opacity to 80%
- on the second layer sharpen the layer mask and lower the opacity to 60%
- on the third layer set the mode to multiply, and lower the opacity to 50%
- link the three brown layers and adjust size and placement
- erase on all thee layers the parts you don't want to show up. use a fairly big soft brush.
- as you only erase the brown parts and leave the layer masks intact you can paint the brown back if you erase too much :)
the icon should look like this now
5. Decoration
- Decorate it. use your imagination. Examples:
and because it's fun, I used this free font for it ;) so go, have fun with it!