To start things off, we did a little recap of what we learnt last week, and thanks to a few practice sessions I had in my own free time, I could remember the things taught to us last week. We then started the lesson proper, which was more information on Photoshop Tools!
First off, we learnt about what are "photo edges", and how to change them. I'm sure many of us have seen a picture of a treasure map before.
Source: http://i.stack.imgur.com/bYvO3.jpg
Notice how the edges are "curvy" and gives off a "ragged" feel? Well, the trick to achieving this effect in Photoshop lies in changing the Photo Edges! The steps can get pretty technical, but to sum it up, the way to go about creating such effects is through the "brush" and "eraser" tools in Photoshop, and various steps involving "layers", depending on how you want your photo edges to look like.
As the name suggests, Photoshop's Texture Effect is about creating words and texts with additional aesthetic effects added into it. For example, you can have part of a landscape "merged" into the text.
Here is a visual example:
Source: http://pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com/type/effects/texture-text/photoshop-textured-text.gif
Below is a link where you can read up more detailed information about texture effects.
http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photoshop-text/text-effects/texture-text/
Next up is Transparent Text, which simply means text that is semi-translucent, such that you can see the background of the image.
Source: http://grafisia.com/assets/glasstext/glass-text-effect.jpg
Note: The above mentioned effects all require a clear understanding of the usage of "Layers". So if you want to try out these effects, make sure to brush up on your knowledge of "Layers" beforehand.
For the second part of the lesson, we started learning about yet another brand new software. That's right, this time its the Adobe Indesign. The first thing we were told to take note of was the Document Setup. After all, this particular aspect of Indesign is what determines how the final product will look like in print. For example, the option to set your bleed and column is available in document setup.
Bleeds allow you to run artwork to the edge of a page. On a press, the artwork is printed on a large sheet of paper and then trimmed down to size. If you do not allow for a 1/8 of an inch bleed, any misalignment while cutting will result with the artwork not running to the edge of the paper.
Columns, on the other hand, improve the overall clarity of the page layout, and can also help to balance the entire presentation of the page.
So as you can see, proper document setup is very vital indeed.
Next we have the gutters and margins. These 2 terms are closely related, as they both affect the final page layout. Gutter is the space between two columns of text, while margins is the space between the outer border of a column of text and the outer border of the page itself. These 2 terms are important, as they once again affect the overall clarity, efficiency and aesthetics of the final product; if you have 2 columns of text too close to each other, you run the risk of the text clotting together and overlapping, and if you have the margin too small, you run the risk of cutting off some words as you are doing the final touch ups to the product in print.
In conclusion, it was a very fruitful week, as we got to finish up the basics to Photoshop, as well as start on another software, Indesign. I am truly beginning to realise the importance of all 3 softwares that we had learnt thus far, and how they work together to create a great graphic design.
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