Zen and the art of the Photoshop(or PSP) Ninja

hey all was just reading this:
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and thought... maybe some people could use some very beginners steps on the path of the photoshop (or PSP) ninja.
All novice Photoshop users please gather round while brother spider kicks some wisdom. If all you want to do is make a t-shirt, learn to do alphas, etc. etc. this post isn't for you. If you want to become a GOOD texturer (meaning clothes, buildings, objects or anything else) and want to develop a good working relationship with and hone your skills, read on.

Read the fonts of knowledge young ninja:
step 1. go out and procure yourself a decent photoshop (or PSP) tips and tricks type book and play with the technques it talks about. I say "procure" because these dont nescessarilyu have to be bought in bookstores, they can be had on-line in commercial and (hint hint) non commercial places.

Learn the secret magic from fellow ninja:
step 2. scour the net for every single tutorial you can possibly find on ANY technique and do it. Regardless of whether you are currently making a fireball or an icicle ir clothing or whatever... go do them, think of them as katas for a photoshop ninja.
I make my living with photoshop and I routinely check out and do tutorials on-line just to keep my blade sharp.

Hone your weapons frequently:
step 3. practice practice practice.
do the tutorials again... try from memory, make brush sets, make textures form scratch, make textures from photo images.

Supply yourself:
step 4. find and bookmark: texture archives, brush libraries, artist communities, art theory websites, tutorials websites, and photoshop resources websites. Download interesting textures, stock photos and whatever and save them back, you never know when they may come in useful and it saves a lot of time when you need to make something fast.
Download brushes, layer styles and filters and play with them ruthlessly until you know exactly how they work and why you have them.

Know your tools:
step 5. being good with photoshop means you know what can and cannot be done with PS. (or PSP)
Play with every single tool in your tool box, if you dont know what something is for... find out by looking it up on the web and practice what you find.
*A special note on filters*
Filters, are frankly WAY WAY WAY overdone... yes theyre cool, yes they can be powerful but 90% of the time, theyre overbearing and can ruin an otherwise great image. The filters to really pay attention to are (but not limited to): noise, gaussian blur, motion blur, texturize, render clouds, render difference clouds, shear and liquify. Any other filters are really going to be on a very specific basis but I use the above regularly.
*end special note*
Instead of over using filters learn what all of those other lovely menus are for. Learn to use the following and what, why how, they are used for: levels, contrast/brightness, hue/saturation, color balance, and layer blending.

Develop your own art:
final step (for now): all of these tools, all of these techniques all of these resources and knowledge will be worth nothing unless you learn to improvise.
Knowing one persons way to make a specific effect is one thing... knowing the steps to get there is something else. Downloading a brush set or a filter is one thing... making and or using them properly is another. The only and i mean ONLY way to do this is to regularly practice and play with your program. The results dont have to be impressive, the fact that youre playing and learning is what is important. If you regularly challenge yourself the results will speak for themselves. Essentially the difference between an amateur and a pro is the ability to improvise.

A last note: no, I am not going to post links to helpful websites, no I am not going to give out techniques or tools or anything like that. Thats part of the process of becoming good. I dont want to teach you how to mimic me or anyone else, I want to teach you how to find what you need and use it. So go forth and create. Remember without you and your texturing skills everything and everyone would look dull and lifeless.

If you enjoyed this or it has helped you or if you have questions, please post and/or IM me in world.

With much love
-Spider

/wei

excellent Spider!

yeah I thought so too... too bad its onlgy gotten 35 views... guess people just want it handed to them...

FWIW, I thought it was a great little article, too.

Whenever people ask me how to use PSP, I always start by pointing them at tutorial sites.

Thank you Spider. I usually learn by doing and am pretty good at self-teaching. However, PS and PSP have always given me more fits than most software, but I carry on.

Thanks,

-- Wolf

Thank you Spider This was great. As a follow on to this from spider lesson learned on my behalf..backup backup backup what ever you do every day no matter how tired you are back it up or loose it.

Shadow

Just think of it like this: if everyone were a ninja, who would ninjas chop in half?

Great advice and great attitude. Thanks, Spider.