Marquee Tool

-The Marquee Tool

This is a set of 4 tools.

-Rectangular Marquee tool

-Elliptical Marquee tool

-Single Row Marquee tool

-Single Column Marquee tool

These tools are basically area selection tools wherein you can perform many functions in the selected area of the layer.

You can notice the Marquee tool in the Tools area as the 2nd tool from top.

To use this tool you need to select it, click on the layer and drag to cover the area you desire.

For a quick switch to this tool, hit the hotkey ...

If you have selected a particular area and want to perform more selections elsewhere in the same area, you can do so by holding ...

and continue using the tool.

If you want to subtract from the selected area, you can do so by holding ...

and continue using this tool.

To get some practical experience with this tool you can perform the following interesting Tutorial.

And dont worry this tutorial is simple...

TUTORIAL

prerequisites : You will need one png file and a font file before you start this tutorial...

Font File link : DOWNLOAD

(NOTE : In order to use the font, you will need to install it on your system. To do so just copy the font file and paste it in windows>Fonts folder; it will install by itself and now you will b able to use it in photoshop)

Step 1 :-

Open a new document width : 1100 px ; height : 1200 px ; resolution 72 px/inch

Double click on the background layer in the layers palette, name it and make it a layer.

Fill it with Black. Inorder to fill the layer with black you can use Paint Bucket Tool or you can use keyboard shortcut ...

once you have set the default foreground and back

ground color by clicking this icon

Step 2 :-

In the Tools palette choose the Type Tool or else you can use the hotkey...

to switch to the Type Tool.

In the option bar for Type Tool, set the font size as 600 pt and then type ur desired text. In this Tutorial, text is : ME.

Be sure that the color of the text is white. You can change the color in the option bar of Type Tool.

After this right click on the text layer and select Rasterize type.

Step 3 :-

Now you can transform the text to the perseptive like in the following image. To do such transformation you need to select Edit>Transform>Distort.

HINT : To perform quick Distort you can enter normal transformation mode and then hold...

while you transform layer.

Step 4 :-

After getting the above transformation, create a new layer below the text layer and name it Sides. Next select the Rectangular Marquee Tool and select an area as below...

Fill it with color #6c6c6c. To do so set the foreground color to the given code (#6c6c6c).

We need to fill more sides which can be first selected by the pen tool, but that will consume more time. To do it the fast way, heres a Trick...

Click the text layer thumbnail by holding...

Next we will invert the selection by holding...

+

+

Now select the Sides layer and holding...

we start subtracting the selected region to leave out the desired sides and the result must appear as below...

Now fill the selected area with the grey color as above.

Also set the text color to the color code #a0a0a0. Its zero and not Oh.to fill the text ctrl click the thumbnail, select the text layer and fill.

This should be your progress so far...

TIP : Always save your work after some progress.

Step 5 :-

Here enters the Dragon. Open the dragon png file and pull it into our document.Name the layer Dragon 01.this layer must lie above Sides layer and below text layer.

Transform and place the dragon as below.

Here we need to perform a new step (may not be new for you).

We will hide an area of our Dragon 01 by putting a Mask over the layer.

Heres how you apply a mask to the layer.

First select the Dragon 01 layer and click this icon.

Then fill the mask with Black completely.

Finally with marquee tool select the side and fill it with White.

This is how we have masked the Dragon 01 layer.

Duplicate the Dragon 01 layer and using mask hide the visible dragon and unhide the hidden portion of the dragon by reversing the colors of the mask. i.e. black to white and vice versa.

you will now be able to see the entire dragon.

Step 6 :-

Name the 2nd Dragon layer as Dragon 02. Now to give it perceptive we distort it. Select distort and place the 2 anchor points at the ends of E. Now go ahead and match the 2 pieces of the dragon. Be sure that this layer is above the text layer.

This is how your work must look by now. Remember to save your work.

Step 7 :-

Change the blending mode of layer Dragon 01 to multiply.

Next we need to apply effects to Dragon 01 layer. Double click the layer and and select outer glow; set the following values...

Do not change the default color!

Apply the same effects for the 2nd Dragon layer Dragon 02.

Step 8:-

This is the final step. We now need to retain the dragon which lies over the text and exclude the remaining. This step may be new to you (may not be new to you). Its an interesting and very simple step and useful too. Here we restrict the visibility of the dragon to the very next layer below it. Heres how you do it

select the Dragon 01 layer and right click it and select Create clipping mask . Make sure that the Sides layer is below Dragon 01. Do the same for the 2nd Dragon layer. Here the Dragon 02 layer must be above text layer. You can perform Quick clipping by hitting the hotkey...

+

+

This is Our Final Result... Happy Photoshopping!!

MOVE TOOL

- The MOVE tool

This tool is one of the most used tools in Photoshop. Single click, hold and drag to use this tool.

When using another tool, you can quickly switch to the Move tool by pressing hotkey:-

Incase if you dont want to switch your current tool and want to perform some movement in your layer you can perform such movements by holding down :-

To get a hang of this tool you can opt to perform a small tutorial that follows ...

TUTORIAL

Prerequisites :  You will need these 2 images to work for the following tutorial. Dont worry the tutorial is very simple.

link :http://www.lecbdesigns.com/graphics/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/train-tracks.jpg

Step 1 :- 

Open these 2 images in Photoshop. These 2 images have opened seperately in 2 different windows so drag the image of the gymnastic ball on to the tracks image.

To drag the image from one window to another we make use of the move tool. Simply drag the image...

Step 2 :-

Next we place the ball safely on the tracks in the place where the rail logs are pressed inwards.

This is how your image must look ...

Step 3 :-

Now we need to Duplicate and Transform its shape reducing it a little and displacing it further over the track.

To do so we need to select the duplicated layer by right clicking the layer and selecting duplicate layer from the drop down menu, or using the keyboard short cut ...

+

 and go to Edit>Free Transform.

You can also use the keyboard shortcut ...

                                                                 + 

once the rectange appears around it, we transform the size of the duplicated ball. In the options bar you can see a box named W : and H : , set the value as 75% in both of them and hit enter twice.

Be sure that the current layer is below the bigger ball. You can then use the move tool to move the ball to the place you desire.

 

HINT : You can perform minute shifting in your layer by selecting the layer (in the layers palate) and then using the arrow keys in the direction you desire. You will get more accurate adjustments.

Step 4 :-

In this way go on duplicating and transforming each successive layer to 75 %  of its preceeding layer and the layers should lie one below the other.

create such 6 layers of balls on the track and your done!

The main objctve of this Tutorial is to get you acquainted with the Move tool and some other basic functions in photoshop and not to create some great looking picture. 

FINAL IMAGE :-