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Creating VDay candy hearts?


Chapps

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This is probably something that should be done in a 3D modelling proggie, but I'd like to try it out in Photoshop. You know those little pastel hearts with messages written on the front? You can see a photographic image at GettyOne.com - it's #ca19933, which I've also attached.

I'd like to try creating these hearts from scratch in Photoshop. Unfortunately, the only method I know of to create that much depth is by duping a background layer dozens of times over and flattening it. And that winds up looking very hard-edged - I don't get the soft rounded edges that I'd like.

Any ideas on how to achieve this in PS? By the way, this is my first post - this is a *great* place to hang out.

Chapps
 

Koula

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Hi Chapps

There is a nifty little heart tutorial involving paths which I found very useful. That should help you achieve your basic shape. Then with a bit of tweaking and possibly a text overlay you could come close to what you need, I think. Here is the address of the tutorial:
http://www.myjanee.com/tuts/hearts/heart/heart1.htm

Cheers
Koula
 

sfm

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welcome aboard Chapps...... would love to see how it pans out if you would like to post it when your done
sfm
 

Chapps

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Thanks, Koula -

Well, I have no problem in creating a heart, it's just the effect that eludes me. I'm going to keep hacking at it - but it needs some thought and loads of trial and error.

Chapps
 

Koula

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Hmm...

Sorry that last post didn't help you Chapps. The effect you're talking about...do you mean blurring of the edges? If so, try selecting the area, feathering that selection and then softenning / blurring it using the Gaussian Blur filter. Does this help?

[oops] [confused] [oops] :)
Koula
 

Sanby

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Welcome chapps...

Koula, I couldn't get at that link, there was an error.

I agree with koula about the gaussian blur. If it's the soft edges you are after then that's probably the way to go about it but if you are having trouble with creating the actual heart, then I am not exactly sur how it would be done.

may I ask why you are needing to do this? if it's because you need it in another picture or you want a personalized heart then you should be able to change the caption on the picture you have there, or extract that heart and put it where you want.

Just my 2 cents.

BTW Those things taste really nasty :perfect:
sanby
 

sPECtre

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Welcome!!!
Someone here might give you a better solution, but in the meantime, here is another tut at : http://www.designsbymark.com (no, it's another Mark...) have fun, and show us the results!
 

namvet

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Chapps ... try this .. make heart (on layer, not on background) then duplicate layer make lower layer darker than top layer ... then with lower layer active go to edit>transform>scale (click on scale) ... look at top menu bar and find the box that changes the size (w: 100%) to the right of that box is a chain link click on it and then change the 100% to 102% the lower heart is now a tad bigger than the top one .... now with the lower (bigger heart) layer active and the move button depressed (top right hand icon in the tools menu) use your arrow keys (on keyboard) to move the lower heart into a 3d looking position ..... nearly there :) .... now it's not looking deep enough?, not a problem ... go to edit>transform>distort (and click) and then drag on the bottom centre square to 'create' more depth .... anyway that's the basics and with a few changes to the scale %age and depth with the distort thingo it should give you the effect you want .... any probs, just ask :)
 

namvet

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Chapps ... oops, forgot ... below is my rough and ready copy using above method
 

wbiss

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Welcome aboard Chapps! :)

To make the candy hearts that I made here:

1. create your desired heart shape on a separate layer
2. load selection & fill with desired colour on a new layer (leave selection on - do not deselect at any point until finished)
3. select/modify/feather (I feathered 3 pixels)
4. Ctrl/Shift+"I" (invert) and delete 3 times to "feather" the edges
5. Ctrl/Shift+"I" (invert back) and contract 4 pixels
6. fill selection with a shade lighter than you original heart and deselect.
What this does is create a definable edge. ;)
Now you can multiple this "heart" in the normal way to create a 3D look.
:) Any questions, feel free to ask!
 

Chapps

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In the rush to get new work out the door, I completely forgot to post my Valentine hearts! So, thanks to everyone who helped ... and here they are. A bit more "cartoony" than I originally intended, but I like them nonetheless (I'd make them a bit thicker next time). They're appearing in a rotating ad on Countrywide's home page at the moment.

Chapps
 

Sanby

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Hey, great job on the hearts. I think that would look a tiny bit more realistic if u added maybe a iny amount of noise and a small gaussian blue.

Sanby
 

wbiss

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Nice job Chapps! :perfect: I like the "shiny" look! ;)
 

Chapps

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Yeah, I haven't been able to get a better look yet when adding noise and gaussian blur. I'll figger it out, eventually.

Thanks, everyone for the welcome. It's a blast to have found this place.

8[
 
G

Guest

Guest
Well done Chapps, very well executed :perfect:

Btw, you did a nice job on your avatar too :perfect:
 

C9Mouse

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Chapps, for someone who had nothing to work with you did a fantastic job. I love the effect you achieved.

Excellent job. I was wondering, where is that Countryside page you said the hearts were appearing on? Also, I was wondering if you would like to share the proceedure you used to do those hearts? Thanks...

Sanby: "BTW Those things taste really nasty..." LOL. How true..
 

Chapps

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Thanks, C9Mouse. Here - to the best of my recollection - is exactly how I made the hearts:

1. I started with a custom heart shape, using paths (don't fill yet) but it was too pointy. I saved the shape in the paths palette and got to work on it with the selection tools, smoothing out the contours. Pretty easy to do, and entirely to your own taste.

2. After getting the shape just right, I created a new layer, selected the heart path, and filled it with a light yellow. I believe I also loaded that layer selection (Ctrl+click on that layer), created a new channel, filled the selected heart shape with white and used a gaussian blur on it to soften the edges. You can also then reload the heart layer, invert the selection and press delete to clean up the edges. Making this channel your selection, you'd then create a new layer and fill it with that yellow. This would be your baseline heart.

3. I duplicated that layer - so as not to destroy the original heart - and then used free transform on the new heart layer, enlarging the base to give it a forced perspective (again, to your taste). With the free transform tool activated, hold down ctrl+alt+shift (on mac, dunno - don't have access to a mac any more), and pull on either the lower right or left control point, and both sides will expand equally.

4. Dupe that layer, name one of them top, one of them bottom. Highlight your bottom heart, hold down your shift key and hit the down arrow 4 times. This is a quick way to move that layer's contents down 40 pixels. If you want to make your object thicker, go for it.

5. OK, now you've got to create 39 duplicates of the bottom heart layer, each one moving up 1 pixel at a time. To do this, make sure the bottom heart layer is highlighted, hold down the ctrl and alt keys and click your up arrow 39 times. Yes, that's a mess of heart layers, but just make sure you make *only these layers visible* and then merge all visible layers. You'll wind up with a thick stacked heart bottom layer.

6. As you can see from my PSD file, I then manually shaded this stacked bottom layer - and I made sure that the top heart was activated, so that I could see the effect. There are probably ways of using styles to do this, but this is where I prefer the manual touch.

7. I also used a bevel and emboss layer style on the top heart, just to give it that rounded effect.

8. Finally, I made just the top and bottom/extruded heart layers active, selected all (Ctrl+A), then copied merged (Ctrl+Shift+C), then pasted the combined result into its own layer. You can then use the Hue and Saturation tool on copies of this layer to make different colored candies.

Resize, add some text and ... voila! I did work on trying to add noise, et al, but wasn't happy with the results. Lots of experimentation on everything from the shading of the extruded bottom heart to the layer style on the top heart will give different results. Have fun!

;)

Link to the PSD file (right click on file and save to your hard drive):

http://briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/chapps39@pacbell.net/lst?.dir=/Photoshop+Stuff&.src=bc&.view=
 

wbiss

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So good of you, Chapps, to share your technique with us! Thank You!!! :D :perfect:
 

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