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3D
Globs
Make those big trendy 3D globs using nothing but Photoshop. |
Beginner |
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Actions
and Batching
Save your precious time by automating tasks by using Actions and
Batching. |
Beginner |
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Box
Art
Learn how to turn 2D artwork into a 3D software box, hardcover book,
or other object. |
Intermediate |
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Brushes
Create custom brushes and learn to use Photoshop's powerful brush
engine. |
Intermediate |
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Chromage
Make oh so smooth chrome effects. |
Advanced |
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Colorburst
Learn how to make simple, eye-catching colorbursts. |
Beginner |
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Colorize
Colorize is a artistic effect used by a lot of graphic designers
to detail pictures. |
Intermediate |
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Fire
Text: Tutorial
Set your text ablaze with burning wrath. |
Intermediate |
 |
Grunge:
Tutorial
Create grungy background effects. |
Intermediate |
 |
Ice
Text: Tutorial
Learn who to chisel your own ice text. |
Intermediate |
 |
Keyboard
Shortcuts: Tutorial
Find out about all of Photoshop's lovely shortcut keys. |
Beginner |
 |
Lighting
Effects: Tutorial
Create realistic-looking plastic objects by using powerful lighting
effects techniques. |
Intermediate |
 |
Masking:
Tutorial
Hide parts our your layers with style by using Photoshop's powerful
masking features. |
Intermediate |
 |
Micro
Buttons: Tutorial
Learn how to make micro buttons in Photoshop. |
Beginner |
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Neon
Glow Text: Tutorial
Make neon text like that often found on commerical signs. |
Intermediate |
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Outlines
Create suave outlines the old-fashioned way. |
Beginner |
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Paths:
Tutorial
Use paths to create smooth and editable selections. |
Beginner |
 |
Seamless
Water Texture: Tutorial
Make a very stylish and useful water texture. |
Intermediate |
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Texture
Wrapping: Tutorial
Learn how to realistically wrap a texture around an object. |
Intermediate |
Need free help
using Photoshop? Click here! |
We'll
start off by making one of the simplest actions imaginable,
but one I frequently use nonethless, a 1 pixel black image
outline. I use this action for creating thumbnails for
lovely tutorials such as this. Start by opening Photoshop
and creating a new document. I made mine 150x150 pixels
in the example. Change your foreground color to black (pressing
'D' will do this quickly).
Go
to the Actions Palette and create a new action by clicking
the 
. Name the action "1 px outline" or whatever you
please. Click the 
to start recording your action.
Press Ctrl+A (Mac:
Cmd+A) to select all and then go to Edit>Stroke.
Select 1 px and Inside for location. Press Ctrl+D (Cmd+D)
to deselect your selection. You might notice a faint one
pixel border around your image. It's pretty hard to see.
As a final step to your action, press Ctrl+S (Cmd+S)
and save your file as any name. (Often you will not want
to have a save funtion in your action, but for the batch
process we will be doing, this is a good idea). Then press 
in the Actions Palette to end your action. Your action
is now complete. You are now able to apply your action
to any open file you want by selecing the action in the
Actions Palette and clicking the 
button. We don't want to use it quite yet though, we'll
use it in a Batch Process.
In
order to run a Batch Process you will need some pre-made
files to apply your action to. To the left are four borderless
thumbnail images taken from the Spoono Spotlight that you
may use. Right-click on each, choose Save Picture As,
and save them to a new directory.
Back
in Photoshop, go to File>Automate>Batch. In
the menu that pops up, locate your action in the Action drop-down.
Choose Folder in the Source drop-down and browse
to find your folder with the four images. Make sure Destination
is set to None (which it should be) and press OK.
Four
images will flurry about the screen and in a few seconds
the Batch will be complete. The images will remain open
and if you zoom in on them you will notice nothing less
than a one pixel black border around all of them. You don't
have to worry about saving them because they have already
been saved during the Batch.
