In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to create a rotating starburst effect with the help of Photoshop in Sony Vegas Pro 11.

Photoshop: Starburst Effect
http://j.mp/wT0TOv

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Download Project Files 2.4MB

Download]]> http://robertsproductions.net/2012/sony-vegas-rotating-starburst/feed/ 0 http://robertsproductions.net/2012/photoshop-error-could-not-open-scratch-file/ http://robertsproductions.net/2012/photoshop-error-could-not-open-scratch-file/#comments Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:10:45 +0000 Robert http://robertsproductions.net/?p=3208

Ever experience this error? You make some changes in the Photoshop preferences, close out and when you try opening it again, you get the error, “Could not open a scratch file because the file is locked…”

This is a very simple fix. All you need to do is open Photoshop and hold Ctrl + Alt + Shift while it’s starting up. You’ll then get another window asking, “Delete the Adobe Photoshop settings file?” Click, “Yes”. This will in turn, delete the Photoshop settings file and will allow it to open.

In today’s tutorial, I show you how to turn film negatives into positives using Photoshop CS5.

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Learn how to create a Film Countdown with the built in feature in Premiere Pro CS5.

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The other day while stepping on the scale, I first thought, wow what did the Holidays do to me!? After my brief moment, I then thought it would be cool to make a Digital Liquid Crystal Display like on the scale or gas pumps in Photoshop. A few days later, here I am writing this tutorial! Let’s begin!

Video Tutorial:

Written Tutorial:

 Open up Photoshop and create a new document. File > New. We can name this, “LCD Display“. I set the size to 800x300px for the width and height. With a White background, Click OK.

In our new document, grab the Rectangle Tool() and draw out a rectangle. Name it, “LCD BG“.

You can CTRL or Command click to select the Background layer and with the Move tool() selected center it Horizontally and Vertically by clicking the appropriate buttons on the toolbar.

Now that we’re all centered, lets add some layer styles to the LCD BG layer. You can double-click the LCD BG layer to open up its layer styles or go to Layer > Layer Style > Gradient Overlay. We need to change the Gradient colors to the following, c0c8ad, and bcbfa1.

Lets also give it a stroke (not the medical term). Size: 6px and Position: Inside.

If you’d like, you can even add an Inner Shadow to this with any settings you prefer.

Alright we’re halfway done! We now need to create the LCD text. But before we do this, we need to download the font. I got my font from Dafont.com. I’ll use the font called DS-Digital which you can get from here. Click the links to learn how to install fonts for Windows and Mac.

Select the Text Tool() and choose the font you’ve just installed. I used a font size of 190 pt and choose White for the color making sure it’s Right-Aligned.

Click a little off the LCD BG layer to place the text so Photoshop doesn’t think we’re trying to type inside that layer. Type 888.8 and position it in the center of the LCD BG layer following the same methods we used to center the LCD BG layer.

Once centered, lets bring the opacity of the new text layer down to anywhere between 10-15%. This is going to serve as the faded numbers you see in the background of LCD displays.

Duplicate the 888.8 text layer by clicking it and dragging it down to the new layer icon or hit Ctrl-J. Bring the opacity for that layer back up to 100%. This will be our main numbers.

Change the font color of the 888.8 copy layer to Black. We can also lock the original 888.8 layer so we don’t accidentally start typing on it. Go ahead and type in whatever number you’d like to display here now.

If the numbers don’t fit perfectly, you’ll need to create a new text layer for the particular number that doesn’t fit and position it to where it’ll fit in. I unlocked and brought the opacity up for the main 888.8 layer just to see how I could better align the number 1.

Looking good! Lastly we can add some noise. Ctrl click the LCD BG thumb to select it.

Create a new layer either by clicking the appropriate button() or by going to Layer > New > Layer.

Go to Edit > Fill and fill it in with White. You can deselect it by hitting Ctrl or Cmd-D or by going to Select > Deselect up in the menu.

Go to Filer > Noise > Add Noise. Amount: 95%, Distribution: Uniform, Monochromatic: Checked. Click OK.

Change the blend mode of this layer to, “Overlay” and bring the opacity down anywhere between 10-15%.

There you have it! A neat looking Digital LCD Display! Use your imagination and see how you can incorporate this in any of your future projects. An idea would be to make your calculator to say things such as your name.

Download LCD Display .PSD! 937.3 KB

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]]> http://robertsproductions.net/2012/photoshop-lcd-display/feed/ 1 http://robertsproductions.net/2011/after-effects-fireworks/ http://robertsproductions.net/2011/after-effects-fireworks/#comments Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:08:27 +0000 Robert http://robertsproductions.net/?p=3011 Programs Used: Adobe After Effects

What better to celebrate New Years than a fireworks show! In today’s tutorial, I’ll show you how to create some abstract fireworks in Adobe After Effects for use in your video projects. You can even refer to my AE Snow tutorial here to save this pre-keyed for use in any of your preferred video editors. Heck, I’ll even include the project files which you can download below! Lets get started!

Preview:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

WRITTEN TUTORIAL:

Assuming you already have After Effects open, lets create a new Composition. Composition > New Composition or Ctrl-N. In the Composition Settings, lets set the preset to HDTV 1080 29.97. This way our fireworks will be in 1920x1080px aspect ratio with a frame rate of 29.97. I’m going to make the duration 5 seconds (0;00;05;00) but of course you use whatever you need for you particular project. Click OK.

With our new composition, lets create a new Solid. Go to Layer > New > Solid. In the Solid Settings dialogue window, lets click on Make Comp Size just to make sure it’s the same size as our composition. We can name it, “Fireworks” and Click OK.

In this method, we’ll be making the fireworks with one of After Effects’ built in Effects & Presets. So, with your Fireworks solid selected choose Effect > Simulation > CC Particle Systems II.

If you scrub through the timeline, you’ll see the particles showering down kind of like welding sparks. We’re going to need to adjust some settings to turn this into fireworks.

Lets go ahead and dive right into the Physics settings for the CC Particle Systems II effect. Turn off the gravity somewhat, around 0.2 works here.

Now to add some Resistance to our fireworks, turn it up to 10.0.

Now if you scrub through, it’ll look more like fireworks but is non stop. We’re actually going to have to animate the Birth Rate. Make sure you’re positioned at the beginning of the timeline at 0;00;00;00.

Click the stopwatch next to Birth Rate to turn on keyframes and activate the animation.

In this position, set the Birth Rate to 30.0 or 40.0.

Move up about 2 to 3 frames in your timeline and set the birth rate to 0.0.

Scrub through and look at that! A Firework!

Well, if you want the firework to be yellow, you’re done. If you want to change the color. Go to Particle in the settings and change the Birth Color and Death Color to whatever you want.

You can then duplicate the “Fireworks” layer (Ctrl-D), and change the color and position in the Producer as well as move it around in the sequence you want in the timeline.

Render it out and use it in your video! Again, if you want to render this out pre-keyed, I recommend watching near the end of this video here.

Of course, if you have or ever used Trapcode Particular, you can get these to look pretty realistic! But since I love effects that can be done in AE alone, I thought I would share this.

Download Project Files, .ZIP 31.6MB

Download .ZIP

What’s your new years resolution? Leave a comment below!

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how you can utilize Layer Comps in Photoshop CS5. Basically, you’ll learn how to create multiple layer comps useful for a quick way to switch between variations in a design.

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