Assignment 1 - Festiv@l

The assignment 1 for computer graphic, we need to create a festival wallpaper by using photoshop. It is flexible for us to choose any festival. At that time, the first idea come out in my mind is the HALLOWEEN FESTIVAL.
Why I choose this festival ? because I felt this festival is very special and historical.The history of Halloween goes back more than 2,000 years. The earliest celebrations of Halloween were among the Celtic people who lived in the areas which are now Great Britain and Northern France. As time pass by, the Holloween become  a secular celebration. In Malaysia, Halloween Festival is still not so common but we can see some people will celebrate this festival with their friends. Maybe you will confuse about what is Halloween Festival and the origin of this festival. Now, let me introduce for you all the " Halloween Festival".

What is " HALLOWEEN FESTIVAL " ?

Halloween, celebrated each year on October 31, is a mix of ancient Celtic practices, Catholic  and Roman religious rituals and European folk traditions that blended together over time to create the holiday we know today. Straddling the line between fall and winter, plenty and paucity and life and death, Halloween is a time of celebration and superstition. Halloween has long been thought of as a day when the dead can return to the earth, and ancient Celts would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off these roaming ghosts. The Celtic holiday of Samhain, the Catholic Hallowmas period of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day and the Roman festival of Feralia all influenced the modern holiday of Halloween. In the 19th century, Halloween began to lose its religious connotation, becoming a more secular community-based children's holiday. Although the superstitions and beliefs surrounding Halloween may have evolved over the years, as the days grow shorter and the nights get colder, people can still look forward to parades, costumes and sweet treats to usher in the winter season.

History

Historian Nicholas Rogers, exploring the origins of Halloween, notes that while "some folkloristsPomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in the festival of the dead called Parentalia, it is more typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain, whose original spelling was Samuin (pronounced sow-an or sow-in)". The name is derived from Old Irish and means roughly "summer's end". A similar festival was held by the ancient Britons and is known as Calan Gaeaf (pronounced Kálan Gái av).The festival of Samhain celebrates the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darker half", and is sometimes regarded as the "Celtic New Year".

The ancient Celts believed that the border between this world and the Otherworld became thin on Samhain, allowing spirits (both harmless and harmful) to pass through. The family's ancestors were honoured and invited home while harmful spirits were warded off. It is believed that the need to ward off harmful spirits led to the wearing of costumes and masks. Their purpose was to disguise oneself as a harmful spirit and thus avoid harm. In Scotland the spirits were impersonated by young men dressed in white with masked, veiled or blackened faces. Samhain was also a time to take stock of food supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. Bonfiresdivination, which often involved the use of food and drink.The name 'Halloween' and many of its present-day traditions derive from the Old English era. played a large part in the festivities. All other fires were doused and each home lit their hearth from the bonfire. The bones of slaughtered livestock were cast into its flames. Sometimes two bonfires would be built side-by-side, and people and their livestock would walk between them as a cleansing ritual. 

Besides that, I had some research about Halloween festival and try to understand it deeply. Here is the image that I find on internet as my reference as well as guide me in create the wallpaper.

Halloween Festival typo

Halloween Festival typo

Halloween Festival pumkins

 To know more about the kite festival, you can browsing these website --

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween

http://www.history.com/topics/halloween

Working with LAYER

Today, I had learnt how to working with layer in photoshop CS4.So, now I will show you all the steps and what I learned from the photoshop tutorial.

First of all, insert two images that you want into work space. Separate them into two different document files as you can see at above.

Unlock the image by double click the layer of image. You can change the name of layer as you like ( example: I name my image as view 1) then click OK.Now, you can use move tool to move the image.

Use the move tool to transform the second image to the first image. Workspace above show that to image place into a document file.

This worksapce shows that the image had been reduce down the size

Click ctrl+T to transform your image size. Dont forget hold the shift when your reduce the size of the image to avoid destroy the image. You can click the F button to become fullscreen. Thus you will see clearly.
 

Click the add vector mask for layer of view 1.

Use the Gradient tool from the toolbar to change the opacity of the image.

Then, click on the image that you want change the opacity.I'm click from the right to the left and it will appear a straight line.

Here you can see the changes opacity of the image. It is transparent from right to left.

Open a new layer and name it as background to easy you recognise it. Place it below the view 1.

Use the paint bucket tool to color the background. I'm use white white color because it is match with my image.

This is the final image that I produce by working the layer. You can also add more image by using same steps as above. Hope all of this can guide you in working of layer. I will try to explore more ways to using photoshop.

For the reference, you can browsing the website -http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/video_workshop/?id=vid0001

photoshop cs4 TOOLs

Menu Bar

If you look at the top of the screen you will see the Menu bar which contains all the main functions of Photoshop, such as File, Edit, Image, Layer, Select, Filter, View, Window, and Help.

Tool Bar

Most of the major tools are located in the Tool bar for easy access.

The Image

The image will appear in its own window once you open a file.

Image Name

The name of any image that you open will be at the top of the image window as shown above.

Palettes

Palettes contain functions that help you monitor and modify images. By default, palettes are stacked together in groups. These are the palettes that are usually visible: Color, Adjustments, and Layers. If none of the palettes are visible, go to Window in the Menu bar and choose palettes you need to work with

Photoshop CS4 Toolbar

                                                                     

 Marquee

 Selects an object by drawing a rectangle or an ellipse around it.
Click the tool button, choose a rectangular or an elliptical marquee. Drag the marquee over the area of the image you wish to select.
 

Move

Used to select and move objects on the page.
Click the tool button, then click on any object on the page you wish to move.

Lasso
Selects an object by drawing a freehand border around it.
Click the tool button, drag to draw a freehand border around the are of the image you wish to select.

Magic wand
Selects all objects in a document with the same or similar fill color, stroke weight, stroke color, opacity, or blending mode. By specifying the color range, or tolerance, you can control what the Magic Wand tool selects.

Slice tool
Used to cut images into slices, which can be exported to a web page.
Marquee Move Lasso Polygonal Lasso Magnetic Lasso Magic Wand Crop Tool Slice Tool

Healing brush
Corrects small blemishes in scanned photos.
Select the tool, hold down the ALT key and left-click on the base color you need to heal. Then left-click over the blemish.

Brush tool
Draws lines of different thicknesses and colors.
Select the tool. Then click on the selected area, drag to draw lines. Use the Options bar to change the Brush, Mode, Opacity, and Flow.

Clone stamp
Takes a sample of an image and applies over another image, or a part of the same image.
Select the tool. Hold down the ALT key and left-click on a certain point of the document where you want to start your copy point. Then, put your mouse over whatever part of the new document you want the picture to go to. Hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse across the page to copy the picture.

Art history tool
Paints over an image using the source data from a specified history state or snapshot.
Select the tool, specify the Brush, Blending Mode, Opacity, Style, Area, and Tolerance.

Erase tool
Removes part of an existing path or stroke. You can use the Erase tool on paths, but not on text.
Select the tool, click on the part of the image you wish to erase. Drag to erase pixels.

Paint bucket tool
Fills and entire area with a specific color of your choice.
Select the tool. Choose a foreground color in the Color Box. Select an area you wish to apply the color to. Click the tool button, then click on the selected area.

Gradient tool
Applies a gradient fill to a selected part of the image or to an entire layer.
Select an area you wish to apply gradient to, click the tool button, choose a fill in the Options bar, click on the starting point, hold the mouse down and drag to the end point.

Blur tool
Blurs the sharp edges of an image.
Select an area where you wish to apply the tool. Click the tool button, choose the Brush, Mode, and Strength. Drag the brush along the edges.

Selection tool
Selects paths and path segments.
Select the tool, click anywhere on the path.

Type tool
Types text on a page. Every time you click the Type Tool on a new portion of the page a new layer will be created.
Select the tool, click on the page and begin to type. You can specify the font and size in the Options bar. You can also resize and transform the text box by dragging the squares at the sides and corners. Use the Move Tool to move the text on the page.

Pen tool
Draws smooth-edged paths.
Select the tool, click on the page, drag to draw a path. Click and drag the anchor points to modify the path.

Rectangle tool
Draws a rectangle shape. Other shapes that are hidden in this tool are: Rounded Rectangle Tool, Ellipse Tool, Polygon Tool, Line Tool, and Custom Shape Tool.
Select the tool, click and drag on the page to draw a shape. The shape will be automatically filled with the current foreground color.

Eyedropper tool
Takes color samples from colors on the page and displays Tool them in the Color Boxes.
Select the tool, click on the color in the image you wish to sample. The Color Box will display this color.

Hand tool
Allows you to move around within the image.
Select the tool, click on the spot on the page, hold the mouse button down, drag to move in the area.

Magnifying
Magnifies or reduces the display of any area in your image Glass Tool window.
Select the tool, choose Zoom In or Zoom Out in the Options bar, click on the area of the image you wish to magnify or reduce.

Color Boxes
The foreground color appears in the upper color selection box and represents a color that is currently active. The background color appears in the lower box and represents an inactive color.
To change the foreground color, click the upper color selection box in the toolbox.
To change the background color, click the lower color selection box in the toolbox.
To reverse the foreground and background colors, click the Switch Colors icon (the arrow) in the toolbox.
To restore the default foreground and background colors, click the Default Colors icon (the little black and white boxes) in the toolbox.
NOTE: If you are using the Gradient Tool, the currently selected foreground and background colors will be the default colors of the gradient.

Modes
Edit in Standard Mode and Edit in Quick Mask Mode are used for modifying images in the unmasked or masked area.

photoshop cs4 WORKSPACE

To create a new document, click File > New. This will open the Document Setup.

 

Document setup dialog box

 At here you can name your file, set up the correct page size, and orientation for your document. 

Page Size and Orientation
Change the page size by typing in new values for width and height. Page size represents the final size you want after bleeds or trimming other marks outside the page. In the Preset dropdown menu you can find such common sizes as letter, legal, tabloid, etc. Typing in exact values for Height and Width gives you more control over the size and orientation of your page.

Resolution
Resolution is a number of pixels on a printed area of an image. The higher the resolution, the more pixels there are on the page, the better is the quality of the image. However, high resolution increases the size of the file. The standard recommended resolution for printed images is 150-300, for Web images it is 72.

Color Mode
Choose a color mode that will best fit your project. For example, when making a graphic for a web site, choose RGB. When making an image for print, choose CMYK.
Background Contents
Choose the background: white, color, or transparent. When you have entered all of your document settings, click OK.

This is the workspace after you set up on the Document Setup.

HoW tO oPeN tHe ImAgE in photoshop CS4....   

 select File > Open, and then navigate to the disk drive where your image is saved.

Choose the image file and click Open. At this point, you may want to save your image under a different name so that you can always have the original to fall back on in case of a mistake. 

Here is the workspace after adding the image

To save your file, select File > Save As and type in the new name of the file in the dialogue box. Now you can start to edit your image by using the tools or effect in photoshop.

Enjoy your work time !!! =)

INTRODUCE OF PHOTOSHOP

For the beginning let me introduce about the Adobe Photoshop CS4.

 

Photoshop has long been the industry-standard image-editing software used by artists, designers, photographers, and scientists. Adobe Photoshop CS4 offers better functionality over previous versions, more power, and a more user-friendly interface.Adobe Photoshop CS4 is a popular image editing software that provides a work environment consistent with Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe ImageReady, and other products in the Adobe Creative Suite.