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bookmark_borderDark Fantasies – V1

Posted on by savethesavages

I’m not going to lie; there is a part of me that really wants my art to sell, but that is definitely not my sole purpose of creating. I make art in hopes that I can push my creative limits and because I just love it. It’s part of who I am, like I’m just wired for it. Even when I don’t create anything for months, I am still drawn to some kind of art or I surround myself with it.

So I’m posting this because this is an example of me pushing my creativity. My friend & local art dealer Alfie is currently curating a comic book themed art show and this is what I came up with.

Continue reading “Dark Fantasies – V1”

bookmark_borderIf Your Hobby Became Your Job…

Posted on by savethesavages

If what you are really passionate about became your job, would you still love it?

Would you still feel the creative fire, or would it be replaced with feelings of obligation? Feeling stagnant and uninspired will also likely soon to follow.

Continue reading “If Your Hobby Became Your Job…”

bookmark_borderPhotoshop Tutorial: How to Make a Simple Animated GIF

Posted on by savethesavages

1. Using Photoshop, make a new document: 800 x 400 pixels RGB. If you want it to be square, make it 800 x 800 pixels.

 

2. With your Type tool selected, type “How To”. Click the Move Tool and then Command J to duplicate text layer. Position your duplicated text under “How To” so you can see it

 

3. Type “Make An” using the duplicate text layer you just made from Step 2.

 

4. Click the Move Tool and hit Command J again to create a third text layer. Position your text under “Make An” so you can see it.

 

5. Type in “Animated GIF” into your third text layer.

Really you can type in whatever you want as long as you have 3 separate text layers. Don’t forget to save.

 

Now we are going to make our text into a GIF animation!

 

6. Go to your Window menu and choose Timeline if it’s not open yet. This is where you create your GIF animation, frame by frame.

 

7. Turn off all text layers by clicking the eyeballs next to each text layer, so you only have the background turned on.

 

8. Now in your timeline, click the button “Create Frame Animation”

A thumbnail with the caption “0 sec” appears in place.

 

9. Don’t forget to save.

 

10. In your timeline layer, click the icon that looks like a folder piece of paper. You will duplicate that first frame and so now you should have 2 thumbnails. In your Layers, go ahead & turn on the text layer “How To”

 

11. Repeat the previous step by creating a duplicate of that 2nd frame. You should now have 3 thumbnails. Now turn on your text layer “Make An”.

 

12. Repeat the previous step by creating a duplicate of that 3rd frame. You should now have 4 thumbnails. Now turn on your text layer “Animated GIF”.

 

13. In the animation timeline, if you click on the tab that says “Once” with an arrow next to it, choose the “Forever” option, hit your spacebar to start or stop the animation; you will see that your animated GIF will repeat at a very fast pace.

 

14. In order to slow this animation down and be able to read the text (which is important), select the first frame in your Timeline and shift click to select the others. All 4 frames should be selected. There’s a little down arrow next to the caption “0 sec.”, click on one and select 1.0. All 4 of your thumbnails should now say “1 sec” underneath.

Now your animation will play at a speed of 1 second per frame. Hit the spacebar to see it play.

So basically, you’re pretty much done!!

 

15. When you’re done, you can go to File menu > Export > Save for Web (Legacy) with GIF, Perceptual and No Dither as the settings.

 

Bonus steps:

 

16. Perhaps the first frame is a little boring since we left it blank, so I added a text bubble shape with “Photoshop Tutorial” in it.

Doing this will actually mess up your frame animation, so you will have to repeat the process of turning layers on and off on your Layers and Timeline panel to make it right again. This shouldn’t be too difficult since you only have 4 frames of animation.

So always make sure that in order to edit a frame in the animation timeline, make sure you have it selected first. Then go to your Layers and turn on or off the layer that you want to be visible. Repeat with each frame until you’re happy with the results.

Other times you might have to just delete the frame you’re trying to edit and start from scratch.

 

17. I snazzed it up by adding a yellow / lime green gradient. I also changed the last frame to 2 sec. so there’s a 1 sec pause before the animation repeats again.

You can animate photos, shapes, text, etc.

You can download the PSD I was working with and the final animated GIF here.

bookmark_borderHappiness is the Center

Posted on by savethesavages

happy-face-stars

I couldn’t come up with a better title for this post, so this will do. I’ve been wanting to blog, but I’ve run out of things to talk about. Truth be told, I really don’t have a whole lot to say other than life is good and all is well in my world. And I really don’t want to force it either; perhaps sometime soon, more ideas will come through that will be worth blogging about.

In the meantime please continue to pursue peace, love and happiness for yourselves; continue to sparkle and shine on no matter what’s happening around you. You deserve to live a stress-free life. Don’t feel guilty that others are miserable, remember that you are only responsible for YOU.

Maybe I will write a tutorial on how I created the animated gif above. We shall see!

bookmark_borderWhat Does the Term ‘Occult’ Mean to You?

Posted on by savethesavages

The term ‘occult’ seems to have a bad rep (depending on how you perceive it I suppose) – do a quick Google image search and you’ll see mostly dark, visual interpretations of the word. Different people interpret it in so many ways and that’s fine, everybody’s entitled to their own creative vision. In movies however, the occult has often been mostly portrayed as something weird, dark and scary. Synonymous with black magic, it’s become a permanent image in people’s subconscious that it’s an evil thing that can call in demons, vampires, witches, ghosts and otherworldy beings that can harm you.

Continue reading “What Does the Term ‘Occult’ Mean to You?”

bookmark_borderAnimated GIF: Trippy Flower

Posted on by savethesavages

I was trying to get this GIF to loop seamlessly in After Effects. Haha, it’s a 10.4 MB file, original drawing on my Instagram.

I started off with a drawing that I did today, took a picture of it and sent it to my email. I then separated the stem from the flower in Photoshop into 2 parts so I can animate it in After Effects. I also had to fill in the gaps on the stem – so when I rotate & scaled the flower, the top of the stem doesn’t disappear.

Trippy Monday, life is good.

bookmark_borderInfographic: 10 Reasons to Blog (even if no one reads it)

Posted on by savethesavages

I love this simple and well-designed infographic. I never get tired of seeing it – it’s just a really good reminder for me to keep at it with this blog, even if no one reads it. It’s good practice to blog or write – it exercises your brain, fleshes out ideas, makes you a better blogger/writer. I know my writing skills aren’t up there, but I’m doing my best.

It would be easier for me to fill up this blog with random images that I liked (like i used to in past versions), but now I’d rather stretch my mind by writing.

For helpful insights into marketing, social media, blogging and more – check out Mark Schaefer at: www.businessgrow.com

bookmark_borderTaking Part in Your Community

Posted on by savethesavages

It would be easier to say ‘fuck LA, it’s gentrified. I’m moving the fuck out.’

Yes, easy right?

But much harder and more of a challenge to actually stick around and take up space in your own community.

Let’s be real here, do you really want to move; especially if you’ve lived in LA for so long? I’ve thought about the logistics of getting a house that I can actually afford…in the desert, but financially it would still cost the same. And besides, why the hell should you move just because some out-of-towners are taking over your neighborhood. Fight back!

So the question is, how do you fight back, then?

By supporting local businesses, supporting your friends who are all grown up now and have started opening up their own businesses; supporting small mom and pop shops who have become a fixture in the neighborhood. Support them by buying something, don’t ask for free stuff; understand that they have to make money and have bills to pay too.

Fight back by taking up space, why not start your own small business if you have an idea that you think people would love? This is your city, too!

Most of us have gone beyond the self-centered mentality – when you were young all you cared about was yourself. There was a time when it served you well.

Now is the time to give back and help out.

I hope this puts things into perspective a little bit. Here is an excellent read: 9 Tried & True Methods for Fighting Back Against Gentrification

bookmark_borderPhotoshop Tutorial: How to Make a Flyer Using Your Own Photos

Posted on by savethesavages

If you are feeling uninspired and aren’t finding the perfect image or background, use your own photos to create a flyer for your event or to promote your offerings & services. Everyday we are taking photos and posting it to our social media accounts; there’s lots of things to take photos of – the sky for example, you can take a picture of a flower, the grass, the road, a wall, a piece of wood and use that as background texture. Remember, inspiration and beauty is everywhere!

A perfect photo to use has a lot of space for text, so try not to use an overly busy photo. For this tutorial, I am using a photo that I took of the sunset when hiking at Runyon Canyon in Hollywood, CA around dusk.

I am using Adobe Photoshop CC on a Mac. Beginners can follow along.

 

Tip: always duplicate your photo, and use that duplicate for your project. You never want to overwrite or use the original – then you would’ve lost your awesome photo forever. Sadface.

Step 1: Open up the photo you are going to use and go to File menu > Save As…

This saves your photo as a Photoshop document also known as PSD. PSD is the raw version of your file where you can edit, create your text and layers, etc.

It’s always important to Save (Command S, Windows/Start Key on PC). People tend to overlook this most basic step, especially when you’re in the zone. So always remember to save often if you don’t want to redo all the work that you did.

Tip: if the photo you want to use is on your phone, email the photo to yourself from another email address. From there you can check your email from your computer and download the photo.

Step 2: Resize your file.

You want to resize your file if you’re going to use this for internet / social media use. You don’t want your final file to be too big. Go ahead and go to Image menu > Image Size…

Type 600 as your Width and hit OK.

Step 3: Add some text. Play with the sizes.

Make sure you turn your Background layer in your Layers panel into a layer by double-clicking on it. Now you can add text.

The font I am using is OPTI Cashew Bold, it’s one of my favorite fonts to use.

 

Step 4: Add more text.

You can stick with one font as long as it’s easy to read. If you need to add a lot of information, then it would probably be a good idea to change the font. Helvetica is always a good choice. In this tutorial, I am sticking to using one font.

So for the most part, we’re actually done here. If you’re satisfied go ahead and go to File menu > Save for Web > use JPEG, High, Quality: 60 for your settings. Make sure you have ‘Optimized’ checked on. You now have a flyer that you can post on Instagram, Facebook, etc.

 

Step 5 (Bonus): Add a shape behind the text

Maybe the information isn’t standing out enough. Let’s add a shape behind the text ‘WHERE, WHEN & WHAT TO BRING?’…then make the text white.

Reversing the color of things always helps when all the text looks the same.

Click and hold the Custom Shape Tool (Star-looking icon on your toolbar) and click Custom Shape Tool. On your top bar where it says Shape (might be located on your far right), click and hold the little arrow; Photoshop comes with custom shapes that are ready to use for your project. Pick the one called Banner 4 (when you hover your mouse over the shapes, a label for the shape will pop up) and make your shape over the text ‘WHERE’.

Hit Command J to duplicate the shapes and place them over ‘WHEN’ and ‘WHAT TO BRING’. Resize the shape over ‘WHAT TO BRING’ since that one has longer text.

 

Step 6: Move shapes under your text and make them white or any color you choose.

At this point, your shapes are on top of your text. In your Layers panel, move the shapes under your text and change the color of your text.

Don’t forget to hit Save.

Step 7: Play around and have fun with it!

I did more tweaks to mine, like change the colons to question marks. Added an exclamation mark to ‘City!’ This didn’t take long at all, probably less than 30 minutes…an hour for me because I was creating the flyer AND typing this tutorial up.

You can download the PSD and font I used for this tutorial.

bookmark_borderPhotoshop Tutorial: How to Create Your Own Background

Posted on by savethesavages

Perhaps you need to make a flyer and can’t seem to find that perfect background. Why not make your own? I notice that the time it takes for me to search for a background, could’ve been used as time spent making one. It really doesn’t take that long, if anything you will end up spending more time creating your background because it’s a lot of fun and you will literally get lost in the creating process.

This Photoshop tutorial is aimed towards intermediate users (those who aren’t new to Photoshop and use it regularly), but I think semi-beginners can do this as well. I am on a Mac using Adobe Photoshop CC 2015.

Step 1: Create your file.

Mine is 800×800 pixels, 72 resolution, RGB mode. Perfect to use for Instagram.

Step 2: Change the color of your background.

I picked a gray color (#666666) and hit Option (Alt for PC) and the Delete key. This fills your current white background with the gray or whatever color you choose.

Step 3: Pick another color and make a shape.

Click the U key on your keyboard or go to your Toolbar to click and hold the icon with the circle – a dropdown menu appears to give you other shape options. I am going to keep it simple and do an elipse…a magenta elipse.

I am now going to call it a circle instead of an elipse because it’s just easier to say.

Step 4: Pick another color, duplicate your circle, and change the color.

With your circle layer still selected, hit Command (Windows/Start on a PC) Key and J and now you have another circle. Option + Delete Key to fill it with a new color and move it around. I picked a darker magenta.

Step 5: Duplicate your 2 circles and play with the color modes.

This is the fun part, the part where you can get lost and play for a bit because it’s endless. Select both circles in your Layers panel (Shift + Click to select more than one item) and hit Command J again. You should now have 2 other sets of circles, 4 total). Move them around, make them smaller or bigger if you want; deselect and then select one of them and choose Color Dodge in the Blending Modes dropdown menu right above your Layers. The circle “blends” in and now you can see the other circles underneath.

 

Step 6: Group your circles into a folder

Select your circles by Shift + Clicking on each one until you have all of them selected, then hit Command G to group them. Doing this creates a folder for your circles.

Step 7: Duplicate your folder

Hit Command J again to duplicate that folder you just created. Now you have a 2nd folder full of circles and you can move the entire folder around, maybe even rotate it to create an interesting composition. Play around with this until you are satisfied.

Step 8: You can repeat step 7 or add an Adjustment Layer.

So let’s say you’re satisfied with what you made, but the image you created is still too bright to add text over it. You can add a Levels layer to make it darker or brighter depending on your needs.

 

 

In addition to the Levels (which made mine darker), what I also did is create a new layer, and made a gradient over this, hit G on your Toolbar. Hold and drag your mouse over this new layer and it should create a gradient with the 2 colors you have as Foreground & Background. I gave it a Multiply Blending Mode to make it darker. It adds depth to your background and now you can put light colored text over it.

 

Step 9: Add text

Go ahead and add some text to this image.

Here is the PSD that I used for this tutorial that you can download for reference. The font I used for the main headline is a Google font called Ultra.

Usually when I find that something in Photoshop isn’t working, it’s probably because you didn’t select your layer in the Layers panel, and then you also have to target your image.

So always remember: in order to change something, you must select it first – the layer itself and then click to the image area.