Future of New Media

The Future of Media
Justin Hinchcliffe
BCIT – New Media & Web Development

Table of Contents

Index    1
Introduction    1-2
Background    2
Advertisement / Business    3-4
Communication / Education    4-6
Entertainment    6-7
Conclusion    8
Bibliography    9
Appendix A    10

Introduction

Communication, entertainment, and business all are reliant in one form or another towards media.  Communication connects us. We can chat with people across the globe, and even off it.  We no longer must go to an opera house to see the show, we can watch it online within the comfort of our own homes.  Business can expand globally as a physical shop and has little to do with store space.  Things barely conceivable a century ago are now see as common today.  Arduous tasks that use time and money can now be completed by machines the size of an eraser.

Media has had massive advances over the past few decades, and has in turn synergized their own evolution.  Each new creation spawns two more. Over a millennium man has gone from writing everything by hand to the printing press.  Over the more recent century man has gone from problems communicating across town to having no problems communicating with the outer reaches of our solar system.

Beyond business, media has generated an online playground for the children of today.  The Internet is no longer restricted to the computer.  Consoles can now access the Internet and connect people to one another.  Gaming began to take on whole new personal level, due to all the new developments in media.  When one looks towards the future concerning Media, it certainly holds great expectations.

Background

Media has come a long way starting all the way back from when the Sumerian “writing” System emerged on clay tablets in 3100 B.C.  Evolving quickly, the media advanced to paper, and then the first newspaper was produced in 1665, [1].  Soon after that the party press was invented allowing papers to be printed more efficiently.  The very first telegraph message was recorded on May 24th of 1844; twenty-five years later Tomas Edison invents the “talking machine”.  Following that, the first Kodak camera was invented in 1888.  Radio stations were launched in Canada and the United States in 1920.

As you can see, Media started off slow and then began to pick up speed more so after each year.  Televisions were huge and still are, however their start was launched nearly 70 years ago.  Some of the biggest advances were made in between that time era, including the Internet.  The Internet was launched publicly in 1990, exactly 17 years ago and since then has sky rocketed.  With this pattern of the Media rising and rising, there’s no limit to what is expected to come in the future.

Advertisements / Business

Over the past century owning a business was very limited to only those who owned physical store space, now almost anyone can own a business, all they need is a product to sell and an e-commerce website.  Employee’s can now stay connected with new forms on communication; E-mail, MSN, etc.  Job postings are no longer significant in the local newspaper; most jobs are now posted online.  Further more, with business’s traditional meetings are becoming less prominent online meetings are beginning to greatly increase. Online meetings are saving time and have additional options such as recorded meetings, multi-person conferences, and real time application support.  Where could these meetings go in the future?  It could easily develop into online holograms to imitate real people.  Meetings could evolve to actual “meeting rooms,” where a real 3D environment could be created with holograms.  With such, it would give the user the impression of a real live meeting, only it’s online and the other person could be halfway across the globe.

The web itself gives a great opportunity for companies to reach all their target audiences, from across the world to as compared…a local town.  It makes companies easy to immerge and spread fast due to literally no startup fees other than domain and hosting.  Online media is highly dynamic, with some new properties soaring in popularity.  MySpace and Wikipedia have surged remarkably, however, powerful new brands can emerge very quickly, [2].  The growth and expansions of companies means that there will be expansions of technologies as well.  Online advertisements will sky rocket in the future, how?  Online entertainment is increasingly rising…the Internet allows advertisements to reach audiences from all across the world.  Need more be said?
Although, the Internet is at a rise, TV advertisements are still dominating at 154.6 Billion US dollars, [2] so it is expect that they would stay around in the advertising business for many more years to come. Newspaper companies are going online as well, almost everything print has been up online…not only that, but for free as well.  For example, the Buy and Sell and Craigslist, both offer services for the online users.  You can expect to see more sites like these to come in the future.  Print material is being put in online archives daily for viewers to sample and learn from.  This may be the inevitable end for printing companies, as it could almost be more effortless and more environmentally friendly to just pay and view a downloadable PDF.  Also, you can expect to see companies emerging with large databases with downloadable content for charge.  Expect new forms of advertisement to rise in the future.  For example, it may not be thought so likely of…although, gaming is a growing area of new media, not only that but it’s huge.  There may be types of advertising like in game commercials, or paid banners. Also expect the white pages and yellow pages to go globally online, not only just phone numbers though, but dynamic content with maps and e-mail addresses.  Soon almost all forms of media will be uploaded to the web. The future of Media for Advertising and businesses has a strong potential to greatly increase.

Communication / Education

Communication is a big aspect of media in all forms.  Communication has evolved from the earliest stages; writing on stone, news papers, telegraphs, all the way to cell phones and instant messaging.  Today we are surrounded in a world of cell phones and computers.  Most of our daily communication’s today come from a call on your cell phone, an instant message, or an e-mail on your computer.  Soon enough all forms of communication will go mobile. Cell phones are now being introduced to running applications on a platform supported by the cell phone, this is the way the future is going with communication.  Soon enough MSN on cell phones will not be so uncommon, cell phones will be able to perform all the users needs and will be half the size of a wallet.  Cell phones are not going to be the only increase in form of communication.

Laptops, always being innovative with connectivity and convenience, will increase in popularity as more and more places are adopting the notion of wireless Internet. Laptops of today are now powerful enough to replace most desktop computers and with the idea of wireless and being able to go anywhere in the world with it. There is little doubt they are going to hold a steady share in sales.  Where does this lead us with communication? In the future there will be full towns linked fully into a WI-FI community.  What does this mean? Wireless Internet everywhere, allowing us to connect to anyone and anywhere across the globe.  Taking laptops even further, they could have an incorporated projector on the back allowing it to present, play big screen movies, communicate with real time live meeting settings, and much more.  As you can see with Cell phones and laptops on the rise communication is only becoming easier and easier by the day.

Education has always been thought of as “a teacher, class room, and school”.   Not with the way communication is going.  In the future schools will adopt laptop classrooms with strict programs streaming information onto their computers to learn off of.  There will still be teachers, but a teacher could be teaching over 100 classes at once with a live big screen projector.  This may sound alarming but with the huge increase of children using computers at such an early age it’s almost bound to happen.  By the age of four, 45% of children have used a mouse to point and click, 27% have used a computer on their own at home, [3].  Media is on the rise and a lot of forms of media are to help children learn, so it is not too far fetched to think that schools will adopt a laptop idea. With most schools using last century’s form of media technology, the TV, it is only inevitable that soon computers and laptops will also be adopted.  If anything this will potentially increase the rate that a child can learn at. Not only will accessing forms of information will be at the click of a button, but typing is much quicker than handwriting.

How will the future adopt theses forms of media technology?  It’s hard to say, but the first thing they have to do is realize that traditional teaching may not always be as effective and efficient.  Students could excel much faster when they can learn things at a faster and more refined pace.  It will be harder for schools to afford such technologies at first but soon enough computer prices will go down and such will be possible especially with the cost of teachers reducing.

Entertainment

The entertainment industry has come along way.  It has broken past traditional entertainment ways and blasted us with new and exciting forms of media to take entertainment to a new level.  Entertainment has grown in many ways, with older traditional ways of entertainment evolving.  For example, Skip rope or dancing has evolved into DDR (dance dance evolution), going to a play has evolved into going to the movies.  Now we have many new ways to entertain ourselves such as Satellite Television, Movie, IMAX Cinema, Gaming Consoles, Computers, DVDs, Portable Gaming Consoles, Cell Phones, MP3 players, Portable DVD Players, Blackberries, and much more.  Now that we have come so far to build these amazing ways to entertain us the question is: How can we build and improve upon this for the future?

The future of entertainment

There is much to say on what is expected to come in the future of Media.  Lets start off with the TV.  TVs traditional went from black & white to flat screen to widescreen High Definition.  They have come a far way, yet there is so much more technology to improve upon.  In the future there may be a table like any ordinary dinner or coffee table, only sitting directly on top of the table there will be a cubed box. Yes, in this box of entertainment you will be able to watch Sports, TV shows, Cartoons, what ever entertainment you’re into only it will be filled with real 3D models.  The models will look like a real live objects / characters only scaled down… inside your box and you get to watch it from “Gods view”.  How about satellite? Satellite will go beyond just the satellite company.  In the future satellite channels will be control by online sources allowing limitless channels and limitless possibilities.  Imagine playing a 3rd person video game with your friends over your online connection with your new 3D TV box? This brings us to the next section of gaming.

Gaming has evolved so far and so fast.  Gaming consoles have gone from the original Nintendo® all the way to the Play Station 3®.  Gaming systems have enhanced so much they have even taken into the fact that users want to interact with the game. Thus Nintendo® introduced the Wii.  Game developers have been constantly trying to get the user more and more into the game, and have done a good job so far.  What if in the future they took this another step and jumped the user into a real 3D environment?  The future of media is heading this way with 3D graphics and televisions, it’s only time before they combine them together with gaming.  Gaming is one of the largest areas of media with tons of job opportunities, it only has room to improve and grow. The best way in doing that is to enhance the 2D monitor into a 3D environment.  For first person games the ultimate game play would be a mask that produces 3D images, gloves, and boots that react to the user’s movements.  One can imagine they will do this by using your real environment and adding on objects with the 3D goggles.  Could you imagine Quake 3 in your backyard? Or how about at a local forest? These are just some of the many ideas to come for gaming, there is no doubt though that gaming is on the move and eager young adults have a passion to improve it.

Conclusion

Media easily and vastly receives acceptance by the majority of people and has created millions of jobs for the nation and its future.  The Internet is a massive tool for all forms of media in the future, if there is anything that will ascend higher and improve upon it, the Internet will be the key.  Business, Entertainment, and Communication have all improved vastly within the last years, they all seem to heading in the same direction, following the same pattern and leading into new technologies that we can only dream of coming true.  Most of these visions are not to be thought of as unattainable but only expected to be seen in prospect.  Is it expected that new technologies of media will be created soon? Yes.  Media has been following a pattern all this time, after we build a new technology four more come about from the idea, sixteen more from that and so on and so on. Certainly Media has advanced and its progress will be anticipated with in the next decade, right before our eyes.  This is something one tends to look forward to, as there will be nothing harmful to come but only beneficial outlooks to strive for.  The future of media will constructive and exciting, and that is something one and all should be engaged and prepared for.

Bibliography
Online Reference: Media Timeline:
[1] Prof. Jim McPherson, Whitworth College, 2002, “Media Timeline”
Address: http://www.class.uidaho.edu/jamm445hart/Timeline.htm

Journal Article: Future of Media Report
[2] Richard Watson, Ross Dawson , July 2006, “TV advertisements are dominating still at 154.6 Billion US dollars”
Future Exploration Network

Journal Article: Future of Media Report
[2] Richard Watson, Ross Dawson , July 2006, “Online media is highly dynamic, with some new properties soaring in popularity.  MySpace and Wikipedia have surged remarkably, however, powerful new brands can emerge very quickly”
Future Exploration Network

Online Reference: Rise of the Cyber Children:
[3] Katie Ledger, BBC News, July, 28, 2006, “By the age of four, 45% of children have used a mouse to point and click, 27% have used a computer on their own at home”
Address: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/5223192.stm

Appendix A
Journal Article: Future of Media Report
[2] Richard Watson, Ross Dawson , July 2006, “TV advertisements are dominating still at 154.6 Billion US dollars” ¬¬¬
Future Exploration Network

How to Market to Teenagers.

 

In society today, our world has adapted many different means of marketing. In order to market to a specific target group, one must first understand the group that you are marketing to.

Teenagers are a large, lucrative group who have grown up with media. Television, Radio, Internet and Print media, are layered to create a powerful effect on the teenage mind and wallet. Teenagers are used to being marketed to on many different levels all at the same time. Teenagers today were one of the first generations that have been brought up with logos, and brand recognition. Being in with the brand name companies and having their logos is an ongoing trend with adolescents that seems to keep growing and growing. In that regard having an enticing logo, specific to your markets needs, can bring your company more customers and enhance your company’s’ popularity, because it adds more credibility. When all is said and done, one must create many means of advertising the product, or the company. The company must create new ideas to keep teens interested. By putting ads up on the Internet; making a website; radio commercials; T.V. ads, and printing ads in magazines are great tactics for keeping teenagers updated. With all these marketing means used in conjunction, it makes for an even better way to advertise to the adolescents of today.

This specific group needs ideas thrown at them from every angle. When teens wake up in the morning, they turn on the TV, or they turn on the radio. Teenagers’ minds tend to absorb information quickly, even if one’s mind is not completely focused on the situation. Therefore if the ad is playing in the background and it is catchy and enticing, teenagers will find that throughout the day they will have that certain ad at the back of their mind. With all of the tactics used at once, think of the many benefits it can bring to the company. It’s like ideas being drilled into your mind. A type of ‘brainwashing’ if you will.

Visual marketing, such as television ads, ads on the Internet or on billboards, require thought and planning. As proven by many other companies, teenagers are drawn to bright, colorful things, with big, clear writing, and an interesting logo. Most teens only take a quick glance at something, and they walk away. With this in mind, one has to get the point across quickly and strategically. Have your company’s name in bold print, and color to bring attention to the ad, Simple but smart. It will keep them coming back for more.

Hearing ads on the radio are also an effective way of marketing ideas. If one is listening to a theme song, or a quick little jingle for a product or company, the mind will retain a certain amount of the jingle, if not all of it. Just what was wanted, to relay information across to the group, and have it stick. If information can be relayed to one teen, why wouldn’t it work for millions of others?

The ideas of a specific company can be portrayed in many different ways. It’s how the target group will perceive the information that matters. For each target group there are specific tactics for relaying information to that group, so that it sticks, and so that the marketing can be a success. All it takes is a little time, studying each group and how they react to different marketing means, and you’re on the road to success.

Young buck poster – Justin Hinchcliffe

Ok guys, here’s my first design since I’ve come back.

It’s using the same technique as the shooter poster just my own style…check it out.

Comments appreciated.

- Justin Hinchcliffe

Mark Wahlberg Shooter Movie Cover, – Break down process of design.

Rusty…but still creative.

Hello, I mentioned in my previous post I haven’t posted or created any design since December, so I’m kind of rusty.

I still consider art and design in every aspect of my life though. I’m not sure if you do or not? It’s a good way to find ideas…brainstorm.

Give it a try!

Look around your room or where ever you are. I’m currently in my room, as I look through it I’ve already picked up on a few design ideas.

1. Wood – The patterns of the wood, I could easily use this for a cabin like website or a beer ad.
2. Ceiling – The sparkles remind me of stars at flickering a night. Perhaps a good background for a website. I can go off on this as well. The stars could be dimming and flickering above a set of gloomy mountains. Hey this could be great for a movie website.

This brings me back to where I was going. At the movie rental store I’m often interested in movie posters and covers. One that has stood out for me is the cover of shooter. This movie might I add was very good! Let me show you the cover.

Everything about this movie cover is perfect in my eyes. It is all very centered, the text is perfect for it. I love the use of the boarder surrounding the title “shooter”. The colours are wonderful the text in the bottom is arranged in it’s own graphic way that it comes up like a triangle. I find this effect very pleasing. The use of space is just perfect in my eyes in every way. What do you think about it?

So what does it take to create a poster like this? Well lets break it down.

1. You need your character.
2. A Nice graphic scenery for the background, of course making sure that It matches the composition of the character. For example your not going to take a photo of some lake then put a man cut off at the waste in the photo…What is he standing on? Water? Haha, nice try.
3. A set of brushes. Why? You need them for the background. Set the layer to overlay like they’ve done in this poster and choose a white grungy Photoshop brush and create a glow around your character. You can see the faint glow around the shooter character Mark Wahlberg.
4. Block type text. They’ve used block text might I add my favorite type of text. The text adds strong character to the poster. It’ll be your own job to mess around with the text until you get everything visually nice. In this case they’ve used a triangle effect on the text for the bottom with larger text for what is emphasized, “coming soon”.
5. Colours – The colours are outstanding in this movie poster. Notice how they start off with the green grass and the characters pants are dark to match. As the cover moves up the colours fade to blueish gray. The background, the shirt, and the gun all match the same colours… outstanding.
6. Cut out your mountain background and create your own clouds. The background, I’m not sure on this but it looks to me to have been cut out from where the mountains end and the clouds start. Then they created their own clouds to fit the character and the rest of the poster.

This is my break down of the poster. I’m not sure if I’m completely right or wrong, give me your thoughts and comments on it.

Till next time – Justin Hinchcliffe.

I’m back…

Sorry to all, I haven’t posted since December. I’ve decided to start posting again giving tips tricks and web design help. I’ll also update everyone on my life and career process.

So lets start with my career

Well as you know I’ve always been into Photoshop and design. I wanted to take some of my designs and bring them to life or at least give them something more than just sitting on my desktop at home. So I decided to take the course New Media & Web Development at BCIT. Coming into this course I had big expectations on learning everything about the web. I’m now in the fourth term and have a junior web designers view on the web, but I believe I’m coming out with way more than just that. Through out the course I’ve learned to be a Project Manager, I’ve improved my shyness and presentation skills as we often present everything we do in class. I now know how to edit audio with Protools and even edit movies with my program of choice.

Why did I stop posting? I stopped posting to adventure further into the Web side and not so much from the design side. I’m glad that I’ve done this. Now I have a wide range of skills so hopefully I can share with you what I know, and you can share with me what you know!

My career – Well I’m still in school right now but that’s not stopping me from trying to find future employers. I’m currently looking for a practicum to finish up my schooling and perhaps a future job placement. To help me out with this I designed and coded the site http://jsudesign.com. I’ll be updating my portfolio on there as well as posting on here.

Well this is where I am in my career and now your wondering where do I want to go?

I want to be placed somewhere in the web design field that allows me to be creative…I know this doesn’t always happen, I mean by this like a interface designer or junior web designer. I want my thoughts & ideas to be valued. If you are an employer and would like to contact me. Feel free to by e-mail @ hinchunit@hotmail.com

Website Layout

Ok this week I’m going to go through how I create my web layouts. I usually start off thinking about a few design techniques and try to create them visually in my head. You can get alot of ideas flowing through your head after looking at some sites on Deviant Art.

I’m Going to show you how I Created this:

 

 

I’m Fairly happy with this outcome. Here’s how its done in a few quick steps.

1. I grabbed a stock image.
2. Created a Navigation.
3. Put on a log bar.
4. Added a few orbs.
5. Added a logo I created real quick.

1. Stock Image. -

Ok in this step I found a really cool site that gives you free hi-res stock images and picked a image that I felt would go good with my design. The sites called sxc.hu. Very cool website. Thanks for the picture. Anyways Keep in mind of what your trying to achieve and find the right photo. I wanted a photo of a dark tree. So I used this photograph. Such a stunning photograph.

2. Create a Navigation. -
Well even before I do this I’ll have to create the Paper Roll that i made. I did this quite simply by grabbing another stock photo of a roll then adjusting the levels so it looks warn down and darker. Once I’ve done that I asked myself what is going to be on the site? I concluded the site would be used for school therefor it should have a homepage, my portfolio, my web services, and my contact information. Simply I created a line then warped with the transform tool and used that to separate my navigation contents.

3. Create a Log Bar. -

For this step I copied a part of the paper from the roll then shoved it underneath the paper. So now it looks like it’s popping out. I created my User-name and Password Text and then added two white boxes. The boxes were set to Fill 0% and an bevel & emboss effect. Doing this made the boxes look like you could click inside them. That’s all for the log bar.

4. Add a few Orbs. -

This step was fairly easy. I created the orbs using filters and overlays in another document. Then I just placed the orbs at random around the background making sure to re-size them. The strings of light that you see connecting to them are just lines warped with the transform tool. If you don’t know how to warp objects let me tell you I find it extremely helpful. All you do is press Command + T then right click in the middle of your selection and click warp. Very useful.

5. Created a logo. -

Finally I just created a logo placed it inside with my content. Added a few ideas to what the text would look like using the ipsum generator. That’s it. You have a easy web mock up that looks pretty good.

- Justin Hinchcliife

 

 

E-mail Icon

Alright guys as you can see my piece of wood didn’t turn out so good so today I’m going to try to make an e-mail icon. First off I’m going to think what makes a good e-mail icon? Well here’s what I thought of.

 

1. A letter Shape.
2. Must be dynamic
3. It should be an open letter.

Ok now that we got the basics lets get started. I’m going to create a new document …roughly 400 x 400 pixels. This size is a good size, it’s big enough that we can use it for bigger Icons or scale it down when we need to.

Lets get started on making the basic parts. We are going to want to start off by creating a new layer and making a small rectangle in the middle of the document.

Like so:

Now were going to want to give it some style. Make it look nice. Apply these settings to your rectangle layer.

 

 

Now that it looks nice were going to want to set the polygon tool to 3 side and create a small triangle. Try to make it come right over the rectangle. You can hold shift to make a perfect triangle. Like so:

 

Now were going to want to use Cnrt or Cmd + T. Why? were going to use it to reduce the vertical height of the triangle then move it down to connect with the rectangle. It should look like so:

Ok now that you got your basic letter shape. Were going to want to make it more dynamic. Doing this will require farther detailing in the letter. So lets get started on that.

Duplicate your triangle layer. (control + J) Move that layer to the bottom so it’s facing upwards. Then duplicate it again and use your Cnrt + T command, right click some were in the middle of the triangle. Go Flip Vertically.

Your icon should be looking like this now.

 

Now that we have done that were going to add a layer style to the rectangle that is underneath the above rectangle. Here are the layer settings.

 

Alright. That’s it to making the basic letter icon. If your icon turned out like this then you did it right.

 

This is just the basics. You can fool around with it after words to customize your own art work. Here’s something I did quickly.

 

- Justin Hinchcliffe

My first Photoshop Drawing.

Ok so I have decided to attempt to draw something in Photoshop. After looking at a few tutorials and examples it seems to look fairly challenging… witch is good. Note: I have never attempted to draw in Photoshop before and basically know nothing about drawing so the chances are my final out come will look like a dogs breakfast. Well I have decided to draw a piece of wood….shouldn’t be do hard should it? Lets find out.

Well I am going to start with a new document at 700 x 700 pixels. Drawing a piece of wood shouldn’t be hard so I’ll start to draw the outline of a log.

Here is the outline that I drew, yes I’m very terrible at drawing.

Ok, now I’m going to want to add in some colour. Here are some tips to draw in colour.

1. Use a soft brush.
2. The bigger is better in brush size.
3. You want to leave in some detail of the outline.

Ok so this is what I came up with.

 

Now that I’m done adding in the basic colours. I thought to myself….this picture needs highlights and shadows. I added in some shadows / highlights using the Dodge / Burn tool and created a well…better looking piece of wood. Next I added in detail on witch I thought the wood had. Right about now…my log is looking pretty good for my first drawing.

Here’s what I have so far.

 

I decided to give it some more visual effect with blending options. These are the options I used.

• Drop Shadow
• Inner Shadow
• Inner Glow
• Bevel and Emboss

Now for Final adjustments I will duplicate the layer ( Control + J ) then set It’s Layer Option to “Soft Light”. You may found as I did that it is to bright, a good way to solve this is by lowering the layer’s opacity.

Well here is my first Photoshop drawing from scrap.

– Justin Hinchcliffe

Infrared Effect

Today we will be looking at the Infrared Effect. I personally have never done this effect so I will be doing the tutorial step by step with you.

History of Infrared Effect: Before digital, you’d have to use special infrared film (Kodak made a popular brand of black-and-white infrared slide film) which had extended sensitivity to red colors that fall beyond what the naked eye (or traditional color film) could see. This IR film made blue skies look almost black, but it would keep the clouds looking white. It made green trees and grass look almost white, and if you used it on portraits, skin tones (eyes and teeth) took on an otherworldly feel, as well.

So we are going to be created an Infrared Effect using the Channel mixer in Photoshop.

Step 1. Open the preferred image that you would like to use. IR is mostly used in landscape photo. So here is a link to a few images that you could choose from. I will be using this picture:

So the first thing were going to do to your image is convert it to a infrared image.

Here are the steps.

1. Layer.
2. New Layer Adjustment.
3. Channel Mixer.

Once you get to here your going to want to double click the Channel Mixer layer and set the properties to: Red: 100% Green: 200% Blue: -200%.

 

Should look like this:

 

Don’t press ok yet! You still have to turn on the Monochrome check box. Don’t get scared if you think that your picture is messed up, all we have to do to fix the white / black ratio is lower the Constant slider. Lower it tell the white isn’t a big distraction. Took my photo -66.

 

Ok Now we have to add colour back into our photograph. This may seem hard but it’s quite easy. To do this just simply change the adjustment layer’s layer options to “screen”. You can lower the opacity to get a better effect. My final outcome.

 

As you can see the effect as made the picture almost winter like. IR effects work very effectively on some photos and not so well on others. I would rate the IR effect 3.5/5. It seems to be a pretty cool technique but almost a waste, unless your looking to add a winter theme. The true colours look much better in my perspective. Next week I will try out another photo effect, hopefully a more useful effect.

How to make a basic signature.

Well today I will be teaching you how to make a basic signature. You are first going to want to get a set of desired brushes and a selected render. A good place to find renders are from http://www.render-world.com. I will be working with this render.

Once you have opened this file in Photoshop you are going to want to create a new Photoshop document. Make the width 320px and the height 120px. Your going to want to make your background layer black then paste in your render. After your done that your going to want to create your overlay layers. To do this duplicate (Cnt + J) your render and set it to “overlay” in your layers palette. You are going to want to make the colours smooth and spread out so your going to do a Blur>Radical Blur> Zoom> max settings. You can duplicate this layer if you feel you have to make the colours stronger. It should look like this.

Now that you should have it looking like that your going to want to select the layer underneath the “overlay layer” and begin to use your brush strokes to make a fancy background. To load custom brushes you dick on your brushes tool then right click the screen. Then click the little arrow beside the brush size meter and load your desired brushes.

After a few brush strokes I got this.

Once your done with your brush strokes your going to want to add in some text. I usually add my text into a corner away from the render so it’s easy to read. Then finally your going to want to add a border to your signature. It is quite simple to add a border to you signature, just create a new layer over-top of the rest of the layers and fill it with a colour. Then go blending options>fill 0% >stroke 2px > inside. It adds a nice effect.

You can add some special touch ups by using adjustment layers. To do this create a new adjustment layer (Layers>adjustment layer) above the rest of your layers. I usually use brightness / contrast or colour balance. After fooling around with those and adding your text / boarder you should end up with a final signature like this.