Elias Addicted

Elias Addicted

 This tutorial is my own creation and any similarity to any other tut is merely coincidental.

Please do not copy and paste anywhere else and link back to my blog. This tut was written by me January 23rd, 2013. 

This tutorial was done using Photoshop CS5

Supplies needed are as follows:

This is a no scraps tutorial. No additional supplies besides your program and the template and glitter I provided are needed.

Font used for name: Bank Gothic

You can find this font HERE for free

Tube of choice is from Elias Chatzoudis.

 Feel free to use any tubes you like, just make sure they are all by the same artist.

 This beautiful tube is called Come With me. She can be purchased HERE

    Banner Template- Download HERE
Avatar Template- (Optional) HERE

Filters used: Penta: VTR or Xero Soft Vignette, Xero Porcelain & Radiance

You can download any of these Filters and more HERE

Glitter animation:
You can download that HERE

Now let's get started.
Open the template. You're going to make a gradient with the Background layer first. Go to the Background Layer and hit FX and go to Gradient Overlay.
now you're Gradient should look like this:

This is how your background should look now:

Now add your horizontal lines. Check them so that they show on your project. We're going to change the color of the lines to a plum like color. So go to FX>Color Overlay and choose the color #501041 as shown:

Add a slight drop shadow to those lines. Now we're going to add the tubes.

Add a close up pic of your tube of choice on the left hand side. Now add two smaller (different) tubes to the right hand side of that close up tube. Add Xero Porcelain very subtly to your Tubes. They should not look blue. Then add Xero Radiance, you can adjust the dials. Just make sure your tubes don't look too bright.

Use a soft brush to erase parts of the tubes that overlap each other. Do not touch the close up tube though. Press Control and click both of the background tube layers you just added. Then press Control E. This should've merged your 2 background tube layers together and your Layers palette should look like this now:

Change the color mode to these 2 tubes background layer to Luminosity. 

Your Banner should now look like this and remember, the same steps you're following for your banner, you should be following on the avatar at the same time. This way they look exactly identical and won't look amiss once you are finished. 

Now we're going to merge the Tube and Gradient layers to make one layer. Click on the Tube layers and the Purple background gradient layer to highlight them and them press Control E to merge.

While your new Tube/Background layer is still selected, we're going to add some effects to this layer. You can use many filters to get this effect. I'm using Penta: VTR2, but you can also get this same effect using the filter called Jeux De Lignes or Soft Vignette. Just play around with the settings to get it the way you want it. Below I have the settings for Penta & Xero Soft Vignette that I used for this Banner/Avatar set:

Soft Vignette Settings (Note: This will not give you the exact results as sample shown, but will be just as nice). Make sure the color of your lines are white, so if your background is white, make sure you're choosing background color. You can also apply these setting 2x to see an even prettier effect if you choose.

Penta: VTR2 settings (you can also apply this twice if you want a different effect):

Now you should see subtle, or profound lines over your background tube's faces. 

Change the Fill percentage of the horizontal center lines, to 60%:

Apply your frame layer now by just clicking on it. If the color isn't exactly as I have it here, go to FX>Color Overlay and apply the color #681a56. Add a new layer. Click on the new empty layer & the Frame layer and then hit Control E and merge those layers. Now we can add a filter to the frame. Add Penta: Dot & Cross to the frame at these settings:

So now you should have this:

Let's add the animation. Open up the PSD glitter animation I supplied.

Right click on the layer palette of the animation box (8 layers) and  go to >select Similar layers. Now you're going to click the "link layers" button to link the layers. This is what the link layers button looks like:

Once your layers are linked, drag your animation over to your banner. While on your banner and with the new animation layers still highlighted, right click duplicate layers.  This will give you a new section of 8 animation layers. Go to animation on Banner and adjust the 2nd set of animations so that they're side by side next to your first set. While new set of animations is still highlighted, again, right click and duplicate layer. This is your 3rd set, of duplicate animation layers. Go to Banner and on the 2nd area, drag the 3rd set of animations you just made and place it last on the horizontal lines. You should now have this:

 Uncheck all of those animation layers. Let's now add the bottom animations. We're just going to repeat the steps we did above. Go to your original animation you opened. Make sure that you are all the way at the top of the layer palette before adding the bottom animations so that you don't get confused. Drag those animations onto the bottom horizontal lines. Right click and duplicate layers. Click and move those animations to the center. Duplicate a 3rd and last time, and move those animations towards the end. Uncheck the boxes to all of these new animations you just added. This is how this part should look: 

Now do not be overwhelmed. It seems like a lot of layers and let's face it, it is. But it is very, very easy to animated. Let's go! Open your Animation window by going to Window>Animation.

You should already have one frame open. On your layers palette, go and check on all the layers marked 

Raster 1, Copy (whatever #), including the original Raster 1 layers. Click "forever" under the first frame and set this frame for 2 seconds as shown.

Now everything else will be easy. Click "add frame" which is here:

On this #2 frame, go and uncheck Raster 1 (on all of the frames) and check on Raster Layer 2 on all of the animation layers on your layers palette. Keep adding frames and in order, uncheck the previous layer, and check the new layers. For example: When you're on layer 3, uncheck layer 2, and when you're on layer 4, uncheck #3 so on and so forth. Until you get to layer 8. 

Now, delete Frame 1. Yes, delete it. Now your animation is complete. 

Click the right triangle in the center to play your animation. If it's animating properly, you should only see one layer of animation per frame. See, that wasn't too hard. Now we're going to add the copyright just so that we don't forget. You can place the copyright anywhere.  I prefer to put my copyright in a discreet area on my tag. Make sure it is legible whatever font and size you choose to use. If you add an outer glow to your text for the cr, make sure you right click, duplicate, and then delete the original copyright layer. This way it shows up exactly the same on your frames when animating.

Lastly, we're going to add the name in Bank Gothic font, set at 76 in the color #ffdcf5.

Add a drop shadow in the color #671051 at these settings:

Change the Blend mode of the name to Soft Light. Right click and duplicate this single text layer. Delete the bottom one. 

Now right click the new name layer and duplicate again. Uncheck the drop shadow box on the top layer. Lastly, we're going to write the text Elias Addicted on top of the merged background layer. Use the Arial font in all caps, size 12 px, in the color white. Make sure the text is put in the layer directly above the background layer. You're going to make 3 different lines of text. 2 for the top and 1 for underneath the horizontal center lines. Try to make the text, start at different words on each line. Now, Click on all 3 of those text layers, and press Control E to merge them. Rename this section text. Change the blend mode of this next text layer to Overlay. Right click and duplicate that merged text layer. Delete the bottom original text layer. Check your animation and make everything is animating properly. Go to: File>Save for web devices and then you're done.

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial and I can't wait to see what you come up with.