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Agony a Workshop

30NOV03 For the past week, I've been working with a couple neat Photoshop tricks. The first is Custom Shapes. Yes, that little blobby tool in the Shapes Menu:

Basically, anything that can be selected with a marquee can be turned into a custom shape, even complex or multi-part forms. To do this, you simply create a marquee selection, I use the Magic Wand tool, and then go to your Paths Menu and select "Make Work Path From Selection" :

Next, you go to the Edit menu and pull down menu and select Define Custom Shape.... After that, simply name you new shape and it is added to the current Custom Shape palette. You can also delete all the current shapes and save all your new shapes to their own directory.

Anyway, I've been having a lot of fun with that, so now I have all these easy and ready-to-use logos and such:

The second thing I've been playing with is creating patterns using the Repeat Transformation function(Shift+Ctrl+T). Actually, it's (Shift+Ctrl+Alt+T), because, for what I'm doing, I need to create an additional copy of the transformation(which will leave your original intact). With this, and the rotate function, I can create some really neat flower-star like patterns.

original image(custom shape)

image rotated and copied around a point

To do this, you simply create or paste your image on a new layer and then hit (Ctrl+Alt+T), which will select your item for Transformation, but will create a new copy on a new layer. Move the little center point icon to where you want your pattern to rotate around. Now, look at your top Transformation Menu Bar(or wherever you have it) and find the little angle icon. Input whatever number of degrees you want- for geometrically "perfect" designs, select common angles such as 120(3-sided), 60(6-sided), 45(8-sided), 30(12-sided: ideal for creating clock patterns), 15(24-sided), etc. You will see the results of your first transformation immediatly. When you have the angle and rotation point the way you want, hit (Ctrl+Enter).

Now, just hit (Shift+Ctrl+Alt+T)again and again, until your pattern has gone full circle. By simply playing with the angle and the rotation point, you can create endless patterns. Vary this even more by changing the original angle or dimensions of your original shape.


Playing around with the Dacianos emblem	A rosette pattern created by rotating the image 30° around one of the "spots"
The same image from above-right, this time using Difference as the property of each transformation layer	Using the Screen layer property created this nice luminous effect
A new logo I created using the same functions

That's all.

e-mail me: Kurt Komoda: agony@optonline.net