User manual ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 2.0 - LESSONS FOR EDUCATORS (ST. PATRICK S DAY PROJECT)

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 Lessons for Educators ® ® St. Patrick's Day Project Adobe Education Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 ST. PATRICK'S DAY PROJECT St. Patrick's Day This project will teach Adobe® Photoshop® Elements painting techniques using shapes and styles to create the look of 3D. For this project, you will create a landscape to be printed as a greeting card. All areas of the landscape will be created directly in Photoshop Elements. Photoshop Elements features will be used to create the illusion of 3D paper cutouts from all the landscape elements. This project will demonstrate the many ways to create the effects of craft techniques using Photoshop Elements alone. These techniques can be applied to many types of projects created with both shapes and text. Materials This project works best when printed on paper heavier than 24 pounds in weight. Photoshop Elements 2.0: St. Patrick's Day Project 1 Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 Preparation ST. PATRICK'S DAY PROJECT File management. Create a new work folder on your desktop. Name this folder with a unique name that you will recognize. Always keep all image files for a single project in their own unique work folder. In Photoshop Elements Refer to the illustration of the toolbox for steps requiring the use of any of the Photoshop Elements tools. Figure 1 Figure 2 Photoshop Elements 2.0: St. Patrick's Day Project 2 Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 1. Create a new Photoshop Elements master file: (Figure 3) From the menu bar, choose File > New. In the new file window set the new file size to Width 8 inches, Height 10 inches, 150 pixels/inch (this is a good pixel range for printing on a digital printer), and RGB mode (Figure 1). Save the file. To do this: From the menu bar, choose File > Save As and browse the dialog box for your folder. Open the folder, name your master file a short, easy-to-remember name, and click on Save. (Make sure that the name in the title bar is the name of your work folder.) 2. Creating the Sky. From the toolbox, select the rectangular marquee tool. In the options bar click the small arrow to the right of the Style selector and choose Fixed Size. Type 5 inches for height and 8 inches for width. Using the rectangular marquee tool, click on the bottom right corner of the image area to select the bottom half of the canvas (Figure 4). ("Canvas" is another name for the entire image area in a Photoshop Elements file.) ST. PATRICK'S DAY PROJECT Figure 3 3. Figure 4 Photoshop Elements 2.0: St. Patrick's Day Project 3 Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 4. In the palette well, click on the Swatches tab. Select a sky blue color (Figure 5). From the toolbox, select the paint bucket tool. Click inside the rectangular selection and it will fill with the blue color. The reason you place the sky in the bottom portion of the canvas is that the card will be folded in half. Folding will place the sky in its proper position at the top of the landscape. Creating clouds in the sky. From the toolbox, select the custom shapes tool. In the toolbox, note that there are five sections to the layout. Each section is designated with a line. The shape tools and other painting tools are located in the second section from the top. The shapes tool is the first tool on the left side of this selection. It can initially appear as a line, rectangle, ellipse, or several other shapes. To locate all the shapes in the shapes tool submenu, click and hold on the tiny triangle in the bottom right corner of the shapes Icon. A new shape palette will roll out. Click on the small right-pointing arrow to the right of the custom shapes tool. In the options bar, click and hold on the small, downward pointing arrow to the right of the word Shape and the shape icon to open the Shape submenu. A new Shapes palette will open. Hold on the small right-pointing arrow to the right of this palette. A long submenu will drop down. Scroll down and select the Nature option. Another Shape palette will open (Figure 6). ST. PATRICK'S DAY PROJECT 5. 6. Figure 5 7. Figure 6 Photoshop Elements 2.0: St. Patrick's Day Project 4 Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 8. In the palette well, click on the Swatches tab and select white or whatever color you want to make the clouds. On the image area click and drag two or three clouds onto the sky. ST. PATRICK'S DAY PROJECT 9. To make the cloud shapes look three-dimensional, do this: From the Layer Styles palette, choose Drop Shadow, and Soft Edge (Figure 7). 10. To create the hills, do this: Select the custom shapes tool. In the options, click and hold on the small, downwardpointing arrow to the right of the word shape and the shape icon to open the Shape submenu. A new Shapes palette will open. Select the Filled Half Cloud silhouette which is the second from the right in the second row (Figure 8). 11. In the palette well, click on the Swatches tab. Select a pastel green color from the second row. Figure 7 Figure 8 Photoshop Elements 2.0: St. Patrick's Day Project 5 Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 ST. PATRICK'S DAY PROJECT 12. To automatically paint hills, click the left bottom of the image area and drag horizontally across the screen to the right, ending up outside the image area. You will see a rolling green hill appear (Figure 9). 13. In the palette well, click on the Swatches tab. Select a medium green color. 14. To automatically paint a second hill, click again at the bottom to the right of the first hill. Drag horizontally across the screen to the right, ending up outside the image area. You will see another lighter green hill appear (Figure 10). 15. In the palette well, click on the Swatches tab. Select a deep green color. 16. To automatically paint a third hill, repeat step 10. You will see a dark green hill appear. Create a series of progressively darker hills. Working from left to right and then back again to cover the middle of the canvas. You can resize and reposition each hill by selecting the move tool at the top right corner of the toolbox. Then click and drag on the colored area to reposition it. Notice that the higher the hills, the more the 3D effects will show (Figure 11). Figure 9 Figure 10 Figure 11 Photoshop Elements 2.0: St. Patrick's Day Project 6 Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 17. Note that as you create each hill, a new layer is added to your Layers palette. These layers will be titled shape 1, shape 2, shape 3, etc. It is important to remember which layer is associated with which hill as you will be working on individual layers to create a 3D effect. If you want to re-label each layer to distinguish them more easily, double-click on the layer title and type in a new title in the dialog Box that opens. 18. Creating a 3D effect on the hills. In the Layers palette, click on the right-most hill layer to activate it. In the Layer palette click the Layer Styles tab. Click and hold on the small down-pointing arrow in the top left corner to see the submenu. Click on Drop Shadows. Select the Soft Edge shadow. A shadow will appear to the right of the hill. Select each hill in the Layers palette and apply the Soft Edge shadow to see your hills look as though they are standing away from the page (Figure 12). 19. Creating the Castle. ST. PATRICK'S DAY PROJECT In the palette well, click on the Swatches tab, and select a medium gray. In the options bar, select the rectangle-shape tool, which is second from the left next to the arrow (Figure 13). Figure 12 20. A little right of center on top of the highest hill, click and drag a tall, narrow rectangle. This will be the first tower of your castle (Figure 14). Figure 13 Figure 14 Photoshop Elements 2.0: St. Patrick's Day Project 7 Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 ST. PATRICK'S DAY PROJECT 21. Making new towers. To build the castle quickly, you will copy this tower. To do this: In the Layers palette, drag the layer title of your first gray rectangle to the small middle icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. This icon is between the black and white circle and the trash can. This will make a copy of the first tower. You can select this layer in the Layer palette to activate the new tower (Figure 15). 22. To move and resize the towers. From the toolbox, select the Move tool. In the Layer palette click on the new tower layer, then move to that shape on the image area and use the corner and center boxes as well as the arrow keys on the keyboard to resize and reposition the tower. Repeat step 21 to make enough towers for the castle (Figure 16). 23. Changing the colors. In the palette well, select the Swatches and select a different gray color. In the toolbox, select the Paint Bucket tool. Activate a tower layer in the Layers palette. Click on the Active tower on the canvas to change the colors of the towers. For the roof tops of the Castle, click on the Swatches tab, and select a gold color. Note: if you cannot change the color, check to see if there is a chain icon next to that layer. If there is that layer has become locked. To unlock, click and hold on the small right-pointing arrow at the top right of the Layers palette then scroll down to Simplify Layer. Figure 15 Pats 12 Figure 15 Figure 16 Photoshop Elements 2.0: St. Patrick's Day Project 8 Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 24. Putting roof tops on the castle towers. With the custom shape tool selected, go to the Shortcuts Bar and select the polygon tool. This is the tool between the Line and the ellipse. In the Sides box enter 3 to make a triangle. Position the cursor at the center of the top of a tower, click and drag straight upward to make a triangular roof top (Figure 17). 25. To resize and move the triangles. Using the arrow tools on the keyboard, nudge the roof tops to the proper position on the towers. From the toolbox, select the move tool. In the Layers palette click on the new roof layer, then move to that shape on the image area and use the corner and center boxes as well as the arrow keys on the keyboard to resize and reposition the tower. To make a taller tower, move the cursor upward in the triangle selection box till the pointer changes into a double-ended arrow. Drag upward to make a taller roof top. If the roof does not fit on top of your tower, you can resize it with the corner and side handles. 26. Creating more roof tops. In the Layers palette, drag the roof layer to the Make New Layer icon at the bottom of the palette (see step 20 and Figure 18 for details). ST. PATRICK'S DAY PROJECT Figure 15 Figure 17 Figure 18 Photoshop Elements 2.0: St. Patrick's Day Project 9 Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 27. Blending the castle into the scene. In the Layers palette, select the center hill layer on which your castle stands and drag it to the top of the Layers list. This will reposition the hill in front of the castle, which will make it seem that the castle is rising from behind the hill (Figure 19). 28. Creating a 3D effect. In the Layers palette, click on the Tower layer on the Tower that is supposed to be the closest to the front of the castle. In the Layers palette click the Layer Styles tab. click and hold on the small down-pointing arrow in the top left corner to see the submenu. Click on Drop Shadows. Select the Soft Edge shadow. A shadow will appear to the right of the tower. Select each portion of the castle in the Layer palette and apply the Soft Edge shadow. See step 16 for details (Figure 20). ST. PATRICK'S DAY PROJECT Figure 19 Pats 19 Figure 20 Photoshop Elements 2.0: St. Patrick's Day Project 10 Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 ST. PATRICK'S DAY PROJECT 29. Typing a greeting. From the toolbox, select the horizontal type tool. In the options bar, select Arial for the font, bold for the style, and font size to 36. In the Swatches well, select the type color you prefer. Type Happy Saint Patrick's Day! To change the color, double-click the type to highlight it and select a new color (Figure 21). 30. To reposition the type. From the toolbox, click the move tool. Click and drag on the outline to move the type. If your type disappears behind the castle or a cloud, it means that the type layer is stacked behind another layer. To move the type to the top layer, click and drag the type layer to the top of the Layers palette. Don't forget to make the type 3D like you did for the other layers (Figure 22). 31. To print the card. From the file menu, choose File > Page Setup. Click on Properties and select Landscape. Click on OK. From the file menu choose, File > Print. Click on OK to send the card to print. Figure 21 Pats 20 Assembly Print out and fold the card in half Lengthwise. Figure 22 Adobe, the Adobe logo, and Photoshop are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2002 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Photoshop Elements 2.0: St. Patrick's Day Project 11