Looking for an effect - photoshop?

[Tjobbe]

Think this is the right forum, otherwise please move it mods!

Basicly, I have seen this effect many times before and I'd like to know how its done or what it is called.

The only way I can describe it is the ripped paper effect, of thick cardboard for example.

see example here:

http://www.isolated-designs.net/core/ - the background image on the left hand side of the menu.

hope someone can figure out what im after, I have tried playing around with different types of brushes but there's thousands of combinations and i doubt ill get through them all!

TIA

[the_pm]

Xenofex 2 (http://www.xenofex.com/xx2/xx2_main.html) has a couple filters like this. If you don't see what you need there, try other packages from Alien Skin. They have some very nice filters.

The effect you see on the menu on the left looks like someone took a light brush and painted the edge more than anything. You could experiment with this as well ;)

[Tjobbe]

thanks paul, will have a play / dl now.

[Pauly]

Yuck, filters. That menu is actually very easy to do, the brush is your best friend in such a situation, it just takes time wheras applying filters takes about a minute with no actual work or skill involved on your part.

'Meh', your choice :P

[crazyfish]

no skill, thats right up my alley lol

[Pauly]

:lol: Not ashamed to admit it!

[crazyfish]

When it comes to graphics I know how talentless I am and I am reminded everytime I try to do something.

[ethicaldesign]

Take a piece of white paper, dirty it up with some ash or other such dirt, scan it, add a noise filter in photoshop, adjust the contrast and brightness (so it's white with dark dirt pattern), then overlay it ontop of whatever you want to in photoshop with the layer set to 'multiply', then reduce the opacity and erase the bits that you don't want (so it only goes around the edges) and you'll achieve the same effect.

Or alternatively you could find a dirty image that already exists and layer it in the same way.

Or find or take photographs of naturally dirty and roughed up planes (old plaster walls, rusted metal sheets and so on).

That's how I would approach it. You could probably do it with a brush aswell but it wouldn't have the randomness or naturalness about it.

If you do a search on istock or similar for 'dirt texture' or 'dirty paper' you should find suitable files already made (they've likely been done in the same way).

Sometimes you need to step away from the computer. I remember years ago someone showed me a logo of a coffe cup stain and the guy who showed me it told me how the designer had probably went through this involved technique to create it (they'd charged a few hundred quid for that single design I think), and I said basically "it's just a coffee cup stain". He laughed at me for being so naive.

Anyway, 5 minutes after he left I go and get a cup from the cupboard, smear ink on the bottom, stamp it on a piece of paper, scan it, import the scan into flash and trace it into a single colour vector, and with a little curve bending which took me literally a minute I had more or less exactly the same thing.

Not sure what the original designer did to achieve the same effect, but it probably was more involved than what I did (though the results were almost identical).

The way I look at it, why spend hours trying to recreate something using a piece of software, when you can make the real thing in a matter of seconds.

Good luck anyway :)

BTW: Can't believe you nicked my kung fu guy idea :) (only joking - you're welcome to him - that is if you've even seen him in the first place and it inspired this in any way - it could just be a coincidence - if you have a look in the core team area you'll see something I posted with a striking resemblance to that image you've used - perhaps it's the zeitgeist or something :lol: ).

[Tjobbe]

Take a piece of white paper, dirty it up with some ash or other such dirt, scan it, add a noise filter in photoshop, adjust the contrast and brightness (so it's white with dark dirt pattern), then overlay it ontop of whatever you want to in photoshop with the layer set to 'multiply', then reduce the opacity and erase the bits that you don't want (so it only goes around the edges) and you'll achieve the same effect.

Or alternatively you could find a dirty image that already exists and layer it in the same way.

Or find or take photographs of naturally dirty and roughed up planes (old plaster walls, rusted metal sheets and so on).

That's how I would approach it. You could probably do it with a brush aswell but it wouldn't have the randomness or naturalness about it.

If you do a search on istock or similar for 'dirt texture' or 'dirty paper' you should find suitable files already made (they've likely been done in the same way).

Sometimes you need to step away from the computer. I remember years ago someone showed me a logo of a coffe cup stain and the guy who showed me it told me how the designer had probably went through this involved technique to create it (they'd charged a few hundred quid for that single design I think), and I said basically "it's just a coffee cup stain". He laughed at me for being so naive.

Anyway, 5 minutes after he left I go and get a cup from the cupboard, smear ink on the bottom, stamp it on a piece of paper, scan it, import the scan into flash and trace it into a single colour vector, and with a little curve bending which took me literally a minute I had more or less exactly the same thing.

Not sure what the original designer did to achieve the same effect, but it probably was more involved than what I did (though the results were almost identical).

The way I look at it, why spend hours trying to recreate something using a piece of software, when you can make the real thing in a matter of seconds.

Good luck anyway :)

BTW: Can't believe you nicked my kung fu guy idea :) (only joking - you're welcome to him - that is if you've even seen him in the first place and it inspired this in any way - it could just be a coincidence - if you have a look in the core team area you'll see something I posted with a striking resemblance to that image you've used - perhaps it's the zeitgeist or something :lol: ).

purely co-incidence witht he kung fu thing, i got it off sxc.hu some time ago and i have a random image script - its only for my blog anyway, so they wont clash or be seen by the same people any way! (well, except us!)

I went through exactly the same thing as you with the coffee cup stain, maybe we saw the same logo? funny that.

thanks for the tips on the effect, i like the ideas and may just try them out when the suns back in the morning.

Cheers ;o)

[ethicaldesign]

Yuck, filters. That menu is actually very easy to do, the brush is your best friend in such a situation, it just takes time wheras applying filters takes about a minute with no actual work or skill involved on your part.

'Meh', your choice :P

You shouldn't discard the filters menu Paul. I know there are some designers who look down on it but that's because they don't know how to use it themselves properly (or it's a reaction against novices using the filters inappropriately). Filters are only easy to use if you don't know how to use them (in the same way that a pen is easy to use, but not if you want to be a good artist).

If you spend your time properly learning what each of the filters do, how to use them appropriately in differing circumstances, and apply them subtly together to good effect then they're invaluable. I've got a ton of images that I've done that would have been extremely difficult and have taken hours longer than it took me to do them if filters hadn't been used (but looking at them you would never know they had been used at least not when comparing them to the way many people use filters).

I think the problem comes when you expect a filter to do everything for you rather than merely being another tool in your toolbox to use to achieve a certain goal.

I don't think there's a decent designer out there who doesn't use the gausian blur filter quite regularly for example (that's a good example of a simple filter that can produce a massive range of amazing effects well beyond simple blurring, when it's used appropriately).

[ethicaldesign]

purely co-incidence witht he kung fu thing, i got it off sxc.hu some time ago and i have a random image script - its only for my blog anyway, so they wont clash or be seen by the same people any way! (well, except us!)

I went through exactly the same thing as you with the coffee cup stain, maybe we saw the same logo? funny that.

thanks for the tips on the effect, i like the ideas and may just try them out when the suns back in the morning.

Cheers ;o)

:lol: It's OK. I wasn't complaining. It's just weird how since doing that I keep seeing similar kung fu images popping up all around me (not even just here). I can't really claim credit for it myself because I didn't take that photo, but sometimes I think there's something in the air at times.

I was watching a lecture that Grant Morrison gave at the disinfo convention the other day, and his idea was that by putting down imagery it has an effect upon reality (kind of like the idea that the wiccans have with sigils, and why the cavemen would paint hunting scenes on their cave walls etc.). He was talking about how he'd write story lines for his characters then draw them and months later he'd find himself completely by chance living through similar experiences of his characters. Although not entirely logical, such synchronisities have a kind of personal significance for me (this is infact one of the reasons why I superstitiously decided not to enter that demotivational poster contest here - though lack of time was probably the biggest factor aswell). I think you probably know what I'm talking about from your post here in that thread about religion not so long back.

What was the name of the company with the coffee cup stain? I can't remember myself because it was years ago, but it might well be the same one.

I had a quick look on istock and there are tons of images you could use. If you look for 'grunge' aswell you should find some good ones.

[Tjobbe]

the logo wasn't for a company, it was a flyer for a nightclub - atomic jam if i remember correctly, in birmingham!

might have been a copy of that logo, or it was the same logo.. not sure..

thasnk for the istock link, forgot about that site!

[ethicaldesign]

No problem. Hope it works out for you. I like your site design btw :)